Chris Barton's Blog: Bartography, page 39
March 20, 2016
The Nutcracker Comes to America is a Texas Institute of Letters finalist
So many friends to root for! That was my first reaction upon seeing this year’s finalists in the various children’s literature categories of the Texas Institute of Letters awards. I’m honored that my The Nutcracker Comes to America, illustrated by Cathy Gendron, is in the running for the Denton Record-Chronicle Award for Best Children’s Picture […]
March 13, 2016
Don Tate goes for sound effects, while I go to the dogs. (Well, a dog.)
The Texas Bluebonnet Award committee invited authors and illustrators with books on the 2016-17 Master List to answer a few questions about their books — not in writing, but on camera. Don and I each got a little gimmicky as we discussed The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch, but we both had a lot […]
March 6, 2016
If you’ll be in Austin at the end of SXSW…
…and want to catch my first-ever public reading of Mighty Truck (a few days before it’s published)… …then plan on getting yourself to The Domain on Sunday, March 20, for Rock + Read!
February 29, 2016
February 2016 Bartography Express: “Grandmother was scary to me but, at the same time, intriguing.”
To get Bartography Express in your inbox each month — and to have a shot at the March giveaway of Their Great Gift: Courage, Sacrifice, and Hope in a New Land by John Coy and Wing Young Huie — you can sign up on my home page.
February 21, 2016
Mail call
Recently I’ve been on the receiving end of some pretty nifty cards and letters and artwork from students — some at schools I’ve visited, some who have connected with my books without ever meeting me. I look at all of it, and I appreciate all of it, and I thought you might like to see […]
February 12, 2016
Advice for young writers, tips for parents of young readers
PTO Today (“Helping Parent Leaders Make Schools Great”) interviewed me recently about my own reading and writing as well as about how parents can support their kids’ growth in those areas. When asked what advice I would give PTOs and PTAs that want to encourage kids to read and write, here’s how I answered: It’s […]
February 4, 2016
John Roy and George and Don and me
To commemorate Black History Month, the Texas Book Festival has posted an interview with Don Tate and me about his book Poet: The Remarkable True Story of George Moses Horton and our book The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch. Here’s a bit of what Don has to say about the stories he wants to […]
February 2, 2016
A special guest in the audience
The first slide in my school-visit presentation lists a number of things I am in addition to being an author, and one of them is “son.” “Usually,” I told an audience of second- and third-graders last Friday at Holiday Heights Elementary, “you have to take my word for it.” But not that day. Friday marked […]
January 17, 2016
Interview and four-book giveaway with Karen Blumenthal and Cynthia Levinson
The research and writing efforts that Karen Blumenthal and Cynthia Levinson put into their mid-2015 nonfiction publications — Tommy: The Gun That Changed America and Watch Out for Flying Kids!: How Two Circuses, Two Countries, and Nine Kids Confront Conflict and Build Community, respectively — would have been plenty impressive on their own. But this […]
January 9, 2016
Many thanks to Joe McDermott and Phil Bildner
The recent KidLit TV segment on Modern First Library would not have happened without the enthusiastic support of my friends Phil Bildner and Joe McDermott. Phil’s role was obvious — he was on-camera with me and BookPeople‘s Meghan Goel. But what part did Joe play? Well, who do you think was behind the camera? That’s […]
