Cheryl Rainfield's Blog, page 88

Review of Picture Book Three By The Sea by Mini Grey

Three by the Sea

by Mini Grey

Reading Level: Ages 4 and up

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (April 5, 2011)

ISBN-13: 978-0375867842

My Rating: 4/5 stars

Source: Review copy from publisher

You know when you read a picture book, and the artwork and the writing work beautifully together that they feel almost inseparable? That's what I experienced when I read, and re-read, Three by the Sea by Mini Grey. The text didn't tell the entire story–the illustrations told us the rest, and the reader had to look at the illustrations to understand the things that the text didn't tell us. The text also flowed well and never stumbled, telling the story in an appealing way, and the illustrations were whimsical and drew me in.

In Three By the Sea, three friends–a cat, a mouse, and a dog–all live happily together, each doing their own work to help each other out. But when a fox salesman comes along, he sows discontent and suspicion, and after a big fight and then a crisis, the three friends have to figure out what they mean to each other and how to be happy. And figure it out they do, with a few changes.

I love the way it's so clear, without telling us outright, that the salesman means no good even though he's saying he does, and that free is not really free (at least from salesmen). And I also love how Grey suggests that advertisements can make us unhappy by suggesting we need or want things that we don't actually need or want and were quite happy without. I also took from Three By The Sea that ads and society can push stereotypes on us that don't fit us at all, and that friendship and love can be stronger than any disagreement. Friends can be family. There are good messages in this book without being didactic; instead, they are woven into the story.

Grey's illustrations are quirky, expressive, and layered with texture, and are pleasing to the eye. The illustrations and panels move the story along visually; we see the wet fox salesman arriving on the beach in one panel, and then his hand knocking on the friends' door while we see them happy eating cheese fondue through the porthole window in the next panel. And the text moves well; there's just enough on every page to tell the story well. This is an enjoyable story that underscores the importance of friendship and love, and living the way that feels right to you.

Recommended!

NYT Book Review announced its list of the 10 Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2011

The Book Review's 10 Best Illustrated Children's Books for 2011 are:

Along a Long Road written and illustrated by Frank Viva (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

A Ball for Daisy" written and illustrated by Chris Raschka (Schwartz & Wade)

Brother Sun, Sister Moon written by Katherine Paterson, illustrated by Pamela Dalton (Chronicle Books)

Grandpa Green written and illustrated by Lane Smith (Roaring Brook Press)

Ice (Stories Without Words) written and illustrated by Arthur Geisert (Enchanted Lion Books)

I Want My Hat Back written and illustrated by Jon Klassen (Candlewick Press)

Me . . . Jane written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

Migrant written by Maxine Trottier, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault (Groundwood Books)

A Nation's Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis written by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Dial)

A New Year's Reunion: A Chinese Story written by Yu Li-Qiong, illustrated by Zhu Cheng-Liang (Candlewick Press)

The annual special Children's Book section will run in the November 13th Sunday Times Book Review and will feature the 10 books, which a panel of judges selected from among the several thousand children's books published this year. Lists of past winners of the Best Illustrated Children's Book Award can be found on NYTimes.com, along with a slide show of this year's winners.

The children's books editor for The New York Times Book Review is Pamela Paul. The judges this year were Jeanne Lamb, coordinator, Youth Collections at The New York Public Library; Lucy Calkins, Richard Robinson Professor of Children's Literature at Teachers College, Columbia University; and Sophie Blackall, an author and artist who has illustrated 24 books for children, including one of last year's Best Illustrated winners, "Big Red Lollipop," as well as, "Are You Awake?"  "The Crows of Pearblossom" and "Spinster Goose: Twisted Rhymes for Naughty Children," all published this year.

Also running in the November 13 issue are children's book reviews by Pete Hamill, the journalist and novelist, and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, who will review a trio of books about the holidays in New York City; Meg Wolitzer, novelist and essayist, and author of "The Uncoupling;" Caitlin Flanagan, author of "To Hell with All That" and a writer at The Atlantic; Maria Tatar, the John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures and chair of the Folklore and Mythology program at Harvard University; Leonard S. Marcus, a historian, biographer and author of numerous books on children's literature, as well as a book critic for The New York Review of Books; Roger Sutton, editor in chief of The Horn Book Magazine; and others. The special section's cover illustration is by celebrated best-selling children's book author Mo Willems. Chris Van Allsburg, author of "The Polar Express," "Jumanji" and, most recently, "The Chronicles of Harris Burdick," recorded a podcast to accompany the review of his most recent book.

The New York Times Best Illustrated awards will celebrate its 60th anniversary next year.

Writers–do you need a trusted independent editor for your manuscript? I know a great one: Evelyn Fazio

Sometimes we need an editor to get that final push before we get a book contract, to really polish our work and have it be the best it can be. That's especially true if we're publishing our books as ebooks.

My editor, Evelyn Fazio–the one who did such an amazing job editing my own books SCARS and HUNTED, is now accepting clients.

Evelyn has 31 years of editorial experience in both fiction and non-fiction; You can see her extensive experience on LinkedIn.

Evelyn reads manuscripts and gives reader reports, priced based on length, and she edits and line edits, depending on what's needed. She'll do whatever is necessary to help a writer, and if she thinks she can't help them, she'll say so. She is a fantastic editor who I trust completely with my work; she allows you your voice, encourages you, and helps make your work speak to people the way you want it to. I highly recommend her!

You can contact Evelyn at emfazio@earthlink.net.

Photo below is Evelyn (right) and me (left) in front of the poster of many of the books that Evelyn edited, at the ALA 2011 conference.

new feature for Kindle owners – lending library

Today Amazon announced a new feature for Kindle users–but ONLY Kindle users with an Amazon Prime membership (and, I'm assuming, living in the US): the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.

Kindle owners (with Amazon Prime membership) can choose from thousands of books to borrow for free, including over 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers — as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates.

That sounds pretty sweet to me. EXCEPT that you have to have an Amazon Prime membership which is $79/year, which many of us don't have. And it's likely limited to US only, though I don't know that for sure. But I'm still waiting for Amazon to open up library ebook usage to Canada and the UK.

What do you think? Does it appeal to you?

tool for authors to find out when you or your book is mentioned online

Authors–are you aware that you can get FREE email alerts when someone talks about you and your book online? Or just you as the author. You can find out when someone posts a review, an interview, etc by signing up for Google Alerts.

What I do is create a Google Alert for each of my books, as well as my name. So what I filled in for my Google Alert for SCARS is:

"Cheryl Rainfield + Scars"

It gives me results that I would never have found on my own, and is very helpful. Doing it this way is also especially helpful when you have a name that many other people have, so that you only get results that are specific to you.

You can also use Google Alerts to find out about any topic that interests you, when new pages appear on the web.

Free novel (ebook) of interest to book lovers, librarians, writers…and mystery lovers

There's a free novel ebook right now at Amazon that may interest book lovers, librarians, writers–Chili Con Corpses, a librarian murder mystery. I haven't read it yet, but I love the tie-in with a librarian as the main character!

What do you think? Do books like that interest you, too?

A single tweet (re-tweeted) helped to save a bookstore

I LOVE stories like this! The way that social media and the internet can help change lives in a positive way–and most especially saving a bookstore!! What a great son this mom-bookstore owner has!

Free Teacher's Guide for HUNTED!

Teachers and librarians! (And anyone else interested.) You can now download the free Teacher's Guide for HUNTED! I think it's beautifully done; I hope you enjoy it.

Bringing Tension and Conflict To Your Novel

Check out my guest post today on The Other Side Of the Story: Bringing Tension & Conflict to Your Novels. I include examples from SCARS and HUNTED, and some concrete ways to increase the tension and conflict in your writing.

Excitement over HUNTED ARC

I just got my ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) for HUNTED in the mail! It is SUCH a thrill to be able to hold a book that I put so much of myself into, and that was only words on paper–to be able to see and feel and hold an actual book! (beaming) I got so excited I wanted to share that with you (see my video below).

There are a lot of really low lows in being a writer–rejections, the isolation, the time it takes between writing and editing a book and having it become a book, worry about earning a living as a writer, etc. So when the highs come, I think it's really important to celebrate them and really enjoy them. And getting my ARC was such a high!