Cynthia Leitich Smith's Blog, page 93

Guest Post: Roxie Munro on KidLit TV

Roxie Munro & Julie Gribble shooting Ready Set Draw!By Roxie Munro
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

In August of 2014, I traveled from my Long Island City studio to downtown New York City, lugging KIWiStorybook frames and rolled-up giant walk-in picture books, about to be the first author interviewed for the media start-up, KidLit TV.

The film crew, lighting technician, makeup artist, sound engineer, and Julie Gribble, founder, and interviewer Rocco Staino, of School Library Journal an...

Scholastic Book Club to Offer Rain Is Not My Indian Name by Cynthia Leitich Smith

for Cynsations

Scholastic Book Club will soon be offering my debut tween novel, Rain Is Not My Indian Name, as a diversity selection through book clubs.

Rain Is Not My Indian Name (HarperCollins and Listening Library, 2001)(ages 10-up). Available as an

The next day was my fourteenth birthday, and I'd never kissed a boy -- domestic style or French. Right then, I decided to get myself a teen life.

Cassidy Rain Ber...

New Voice: Hannah West on Kingdom of Ash and Briars

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Hannah West is the first-time author of Kingdom of Ash and Briars (Holiday House, 2016). From the promotional copy:

Building on homages to Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jane Austen’s Emma and the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, Hannah West makes a spectacular and wholly original debut.

Bristal, a sixteen-year-old kitchen maid, lands in a fairy tale gone wrong when she discovers she has elicromancer magic in her blood. Elicromancers are an ancient breed of immor...

Publisher Interview: CEO Nancy Traversy of Barefoot Books

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

"Barefoot Books was founded in 1992 by two young moms working from home with the dream of creating beautiful books that celebrate diversity, spark curiosity and capture children’s imaginations."

There's been an ongoing conversation about diversity in children's literature. What are your thoughts on the subject?

Children's publishers, and the media industry as a whole, have a huge responsibility to create diverse, inclusive content for kids. Barefoot Books h...

In Memory: Joyce Carol Thomas

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Joyce Carol Thomas, Berkeley children’s author, dies at 78 by Shradha Ganapathy from The Daily Californian. Peek: "Celebrated local children’s author Joyce Carol Thomas — a poet, playwright and winner of the National Book Award — died Aug. 13 at Stanford University (Medical Center)."

Obituary: Joyce Carol Thomas by Shannon Maughan from Publishers Weekly. Peek: "Thomas was born on May 25, 1938 in the small town of Ponca City, Okla., where she lived until t...

Cynsational News & Resources

New Infographic of CCBC Publishing Statistics by David HuyckBy Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Check out the new infographic Diversity in Children's Books 2015 by David Huyck.

We have made very modest gains, but as Sarah Hannah Gomez has pointed out, it's important not to compare it to the 2012 graphic and gauge progress that way.

The math is different. In the original graphic, those books starring non-human characters were subtracted and then the percentages were calculated. This time, non-...

Guest Post: Carol Coven Grannick on Flaws: Fatal - Or Not

By Carol Coven Grannick
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

Has the wisdom of time and life positively affected my ability to write flawed characters? Or is it the other way around?

I muse about this during an early summer morning’s coffee and writing time.

In much younger days, a painful flaw in a friend’s makeup would end the friendship. I could not tolerate – or truthfully, did not know how to negotiate the waters of – imperfection.

I don’t mean to imply that some relationships, whether roma...

Cynsational Summer Awards Roundup

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Boston Globe-Hornbook Awards for Excellence in Children's Literature: "Winners are selected in three categories: Picture Book, Fiction and Poetry, and Nonfiction. Two Honor Books may be named in each category."



The National Book Awards Longlist: Young People's Literature from The New Yorker. Peek: "...a novel in verse about a twelve-year-old soccer nut, an illustrated adventure story that draws on Chinese folklore, a work of nonfiction about a woman who s...

Guest Post: Denis Markell on Once You've Found Your Story, How Do You Tell It?

By Denis Markell
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

As an aspiring writer for children, one of the many dividends of marrying my beautiful and gifted wife Melissa Iwai...

(am I right or am I right?)
was finding someone to collaborate with on picture books.

Seeing as I knew she was an extraordinary illustrator, this was to be expected.

What came as a surprise, however, was how deeply her personal experience as an Asian-American woman in America and the history of her family would affect me and m...

New Voice: Sonya Mukherjee on Gemini

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Sonya Mukherjeeis the first-time author of Gemini (Simon & Schuster, 2016). From the promotional copy:

In a powerful and daring debut novel, Sonya Mukherjee shares the story of sisters Clara and Hailey, conjoined twins who are learning what it means to be truly extraordinary.

Seventeen-year-old conjoined twins, Clara and Hailey, have lived in the same small town their entire lives—no one stares at them anymore. But there are cracks in their quiet exist...