Chris Barton's Blog: Bartography, page 44

Bartography Express for June 2015, featuring Jacqueline Kelly’s The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate

This month, one subscriber to my Bartography Express newsletter will win a copy of The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate (Henry Holt and Co.) by Jacqueline Kelly.

If you’re not already receiving Bartography Express, click the image below for a look. If you like what you see, click “Join” in the bottom right corner, and you’ll be in the running for the giveaway at the end of this week.

The latest (great!) reviews for The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch

I’m excited to the see the word get out — and the favorable reviews come in — for my book with Don Tate, The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers). Here’s a sampling of the latest batch:

From Kendal Rautzhan’s nationally syndicated column:

“This inspirational story of John Roy Lynch, going from a teenage slave to a U.S. Congressman in just 10 years, should not be missed.”

From librarian Tasha Saecker’s Waking Brain Cells blog:

“An important book focused on an impor...

Coming from me & Ashley Spires in 2017: Book or Bell

This past Thursday’s PW Children’s Bookshelf included the news that I’ve got another new picture book on the way: Book or Bell, to be illustrated by Ashley Spires and scheduled to be published by Bloomsbury in spring 2017.

I bet whoever assembled that issue of the PW newsletter got a little chuckle out of how my author photo and Ashley’s illustrator photo fit together:

It looks like I was mooning on one side of a wall and Ashley on the other, each of us thinking, “If only there were someone...

Good news & good company for The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch

This past week has brought a couple of happy developments for my new book with Don Tate, The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers).

First, the book has received a Silver Honor from the Parents’ Choice Awards. Thank you, Parents’ Choice!

And another big thank you goes to Colby Sharp and Jon Samuelson for including The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch (along with Bob Shea’s Ballet Cat and Victoria Jamieson’s Roller Girl) in the latest episode of the Booklandia podcast....

Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center on The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch

“[F]our reasons why most of us need to read this book” sounds pretty terrific to me. Thanks, APAC!

Giveaway: a copy of John Roy Lynch signed by Don and me

Angie Manfredi, one of the most passionate librarians I know, is giving away a copy of The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch that’s been signed by both illustrator Don Tate and me.

Here’s a bit of what Angie has to say about the book:

Everything about The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch is special. It’s a book that asks children to think big thoughts and ask hard questions about eras of history that are too often glossed over and about the era we live in now. It’s ambitious, interesting, original...

6 tips from 6 years of school visits

With terrific visits last week to Carrollton and Midland, Texas, I’ve wrapped up my sixth year of school presentations. I’ve learned a lot of things along the way, and for the benefit of other visiting authors, here are half a dozen of them — one for each year I’ve been at it.

1. Find out what the school wants you to talk about.
If you’ve got multiple books, don’t assume that your host wants you to focus on your newest one. Your host might not know much about it, and in fact may have led thei...

Bartography Express for May 2015, featuring Elena Dunkle’s Elena Vanishing

This month, one subscriber to my Bartography Express newsletter will win a copy of Elena Vanishing (Chronicle Books) by Elena Dunkle and Clare B. Dunkle, and another subscriber will win its companion memoir Hope and Other Luxuries by Clare B. Dunkle.

If you’re not already receiving Bartography Express, click the image below for a look. If you like what you see, click “Join” in the bottom right corner, and you’ll be in the running for the giveaway at the end of this week.

A first look at Jennifer Ziegler’s next book

Those of you who loved my wife Jennifer’s 2014 novel Revenge of the Flower Girls might just be interested in what’s coming this August:

And if you’re sensing a theme running through the books Jennifer and I have coming out later this year, you’re right:

Between her Revenge of the Angels — in which the Brewster triplets find themselves woefully miscast in their church’s Christmas pageant — and my ‘The Nutcracker’ Comes to America arriving in September, we’ll start celebrating the holidays ar...

More (from me, and from my host) about last week’s Twitter chat

So, a little more about last week’s Twitter chat…

Librarian Colleen Graves has written about the chat from her perspective. Here’s a bit of that —

I loved, loved, loved being able to take teachable moments while Chris was typing to talk with students about what he was saying. At one point, the students asked Chris, “What do you do when you don’t know what to write?” To which he so eloquently said, “Pay attention to what you can’t stop thinking of.” So while he was typing up his next response,...