Monica Edinger's Blog, page 114

Pithy Poet Pinsky

The issue of "children's verse"– a concept rejected by Maurice Sendak and William Corley– is worth pondering. It's a marketing and retail category, and therefore an acquisition-editor's category . . . but that doesn't mean we have to accept it as a personal or literary category. To put it differently: niche, shmiche.

That's one of Robert Pinsky's responses to a comment on his Slate article, "Wild Child: The Best Poems for Kids aren't the Soft and Saccharine Ones."  Article (including...

Coming Soon: Jonathan Stroud's The Ring of Solomon

Farquarl had been rubbing it in for hours.  During the entire clear-up operation he'd been on at me, in fact, even while we'd been digging the burial pits, even while we'd been piling up the camels and trying to get them to light.  He'd never stopped the whole time.  It had ruined my afternoon.

The news that there was a Bartimaeus prequel in the works had many of us barking wildly.  Not to mention panting excitedly when we heard an excerpt at an ALA Disney-Hyperion fall preview. As there ...

Returning to the Exquisite Corpse

Alack, alas, I have fallen behind with The Exquisite Corpse Adventure.  Oh well, no matter. For those just tuning in, this is an initiative of the Library of Congress; a shaggy dog of an adventure created by some of the biggest and best children's literature folks.  Every couple of weeks there is a new episode beautifully illustrated and available for reading and listening.

Since I greatly appreciate the use of the word "meanwhile" as a way to change the subject*, gummy bears, Lemony Snicket, ...

The Magic-Hating Magician of Vegas

"I have always hated magic," he says. "I have always hated the basic undercurrent of magic which Jerry Seinfeld put best when he said: 'All magic is "Here's a quarter, now it's gone. You're a jerk. Now it's back. You're an idiot. Show's over".' I never wanted to grow up to be a magician. It was never my goal."

So sayeth the talking one in this Penn and Teller interview.

Calling on all Claudia-Wannabes

Museums are complicated places, aren't they?  Filled with cool objects they can transport us to other places and times.  There are big museums and small ones. Old museums and new ones. Imaginary ones.  Lost ones. And undefinable ones like this one.

Because museums are places we go or are taken to as kids, filled with objects and ideas that are new and exciting and strange, they are featured frequently in stories.  Say a dramatic moment at the British Museum early on in Rick Riordan's The Red...

Kurt Scaletta's Mamba Point

Mambo Point is the story of twelve-year-old Linus Tuttle who moves to Monrovia, Liberia in 1982 when his dad gets a job at the US Embassy there. A highly anxious kid, Linus hopes for a chance to reinvent himself in a new place (something I, an academic brat who moved frequently as a child, totally identified with).  When they first arrive the family has a dramatic encounter with a black mamba snake, mambas being among the most deadly snakes of the region. Once in their new apartment...

Kurt Scaletta's Mambo Point

Mambo Point is the story of twelve-year-old Linus Tuttle who moves to Monrovia, Liberia in 1982 when his dad gets a job at the US Embassy there. A highly anxious kid, Linus hopes for a chance to reinvent himself in a new place (something I, an academic brat who moved frequently as a child, totally identified with).  When they first arrive the family has a dramatic encounter with a black mamba snake, mambas being among the most deadly snakes of the region. Once in their new apartment...

A Few Clues from Me

Every month the Sherlock Holmes-like creators of the very fine Story Sleuths blog investigate a book to see what can they can glean from it in terms of writing for children.  Sometimes they have interviews with the authors and sometimes other folks weigh in as well. Say me. Their latest focus has been One Crazy Summer and I was delighted when they invited me to contribute this guest post. Others they've explored include The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,  Charles and Emma, and a

Many Anne Franks

That's my 7th grade diary given to me by my grandmother along with a copy of Anne Frank's diary right before we left for a year in Germany.  When we visited the recently-opened Anne Frank House a few months later I realized that my diary was just like Anne's.  Presumably my grandmother bought it in Frankfurt (before she and my father fled in 1936), saved it, and then gave it to me years later.  I was almost twelve in 1964 when I first read Anne's diary; it had a profound impression on me. ...

Thoughts on Newbery: Something Old or Something New?

2. Each book is to be considered as a contribution to American literature. The committee is to make its decision primarily on the text. Other components of a book, such as illustrations, overall design of the book, etc., may be considered when they make the book less effective.

That is the current criteria #2 for the Newbery award and I've written here before about my frustration with it. (Thoughts on Newbery: The Design Thorn.) As I complained in that post and Betsy Bird points out...