Josh Funk's Blog, page 8

Signed Editions Available at The Concord Bookshop

Can’t make it to the Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast book launch on September 1st? Well, I have even better news! I’ve partnered with The Concord Bookshop to offer personalized signed editions!

It’s as easy as placing an online order here and indicating in the comments something like “signed by author, please” and “inscribed to Suzy-Q.” As soon I can, I’ll hop down to the bookstore and they’ll either ship the book to you or hold it for pickup in their awesome store in downtown Concord, MA, USA .

You can also call [(978) 369-2405] or email [books@concordbookshop.com] the bookshop directly if you have any questions.

I’d like to thank The Concord Bookshop for partnering up! And I’m glad to say that no matter where you are, you can get a personalized and signed copy of Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast!

You’re Invited to a Book Launch!

We’re less than one month away from release day! And you, yes YOU, are invited to the Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast book launch!

When: September 1st, 7pm

Where: Porter Square Books

25 White St., Cambridge, MA, USA

(feel free to join the Facebook event here)

Join me for treats, a reading, a book signing, (probably some other awesome author guests), and a fabulous book store party!

(and if you’re early, come to the #Kidlit Meetup at the Tavern in the Square restaurant down the block from 5-7pm)

But what if you can’t make it to the book launch? Check back tomorrow, ’cause I’ll have good news for you!

I hope to see you, yes YOU, on September 1st!!!

Activity Kit for Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast

Sterling Publishing has put together a fantastic, full-color, 12-page Activity Kit for Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast and it’s absolutely free! You can download it from my website www.joshfunkbooks.com right now in PDF form and print it out yourself! No waiting (depending on your internet speed).

Click to view slideshow.

And to make things even easier, I’ve linked it right to this post.

Download High Resolution Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast Activity Kit

Download Low Resolution Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast Activity Kit

I won’t waste any more of your time while you could be coloring, searching for words, connecting dots, solving mazes, finding rhymes, and more!

And don’t forget:

Available online and in bookstores nationwide on September 1st!

Activity Kits for Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast

Sterling Publishing has put together a fantastic, full-color, 12-page Activity Kit for Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast and it’s absolutely free! You can download it from my website www.joshfunkbooks.com right now in PDF form and print it out yourself! No waiting (depending on your internet speed).

Click to view slideshow.

And to make things even easier, I’ve linked it right to this post.

Download High Resolution Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast Activity Kit

Download Low Resolution Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast Activity Kit

I won’t waste any more of your time while you could be coloring, searching for words, connecting dots, solving mazes, finding rhymes, and more!

And don’t forget:

Available online and in bookstores nationwide on September 1st!

Precisely 623 Days Ago …

… I stood in The Writers’ Loft prior to a picture book critique group meeting and I received an email telling me Sterling Publishing was interested in publishing Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast.

And today, precisely 623 days later (to the minute … and yes, I’ve taken daylight savings into account), I stand in the same exact location holding an actual copy of the book.

*chills*

That is all.

nErDcamp rEcap

Brace yourself: this post is gonna be long. If you’re like me, you might want to just look at the pictures.

I spent last Monday and Tuesday at nErDcamp in Michigan. What is nErDcamp? It’s a conference for educators focused on reading and literacy founded by members of the Nerdy Book Club (if you don’t know what that is, stop reading this and go here now). Over 900 educators from all over the U.S. and Canada attended the two day conference.

So let me tell you what happened with pictures.

Sunday morning I flew from Boston to Detroit.

Early Morning jetBlue flight

After chilling at the airport for a bit, I hitched a ride with educators Lesley Burnap, Jason Lewis, and Debbie Ridpath Ohi (author/illustrator of Where Are My Books?, illustrator of I’m Bored and Naked – two separate books). We stopped at Bob’s Big Boy for a snack on the way from Detroit to the Hampton Inn in Jackson.

Jason, Big Boy, Lesley, & me

[Photo by Debbie Ridpath Ohi debbieohi.com]

 

Debbie did one of her found art doodles (see more of her found art doodles here).

Red Pepper Boat to #nErDcamp

[Photo by Debbie Ridpath Ohi debbieohi.com]

 

After checking in at the hotel, we met up with my good friend Jess Keating (author of How to Outrun a Crocodile When Your Shoes are Untied, How to Outswim a Shark without a Snorkel, this October’s How to Outfox Your Friends When You Don’t Have a Clue, and next February’s Pink Is for Blobfish, AND member of #TeamKrush) and her husband who shall henceforth be referred to as #NerdyPhotographer. Along with Debbie, we headed over to the high school where nErDcamp would take place starting the next day. We stopped by the rock for this photo:

Debbie, me, & Jess

Then we headed into the school

the steps into the school

where I dropped off some swag,

Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast Activity Kits

and a little more swag,

Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast Bookmarks

and offered (Jess and Debie) to help.

Jess and Debbie breaking down boxes

We met nErDcamp co-creators/founders/planners/chairs Colby Sharp, his wife Alaina Sharp, and Suzanne Gibbs.

Jess, Debbie, Colby, and me

[Photo by Debbie Ridpath Ohi debbieohi.com]

 

We met other conference volunteers (also twitter friends) including Jen Vincent, Niki Ohs Barnes, & Ryan Hanna, before heading to the infamous Olive Garden for dinner to meet up with even more educators (also also twitter friends) Kacie Rodgers, Kurt Stroh, Sara Ralph, Michele Knott, Kathy Burnette, Amy Ralph, Michelle Simpson, Melissa Guerrette, Carrie Davies, Ann King DiBella, and more!

Mingling after my eggplant parm.

[Photo by Debbie Ridpath Ohi debbieohi.com]

 

After hanging out in the Hampton Inn ‘bar’ for the evening, I shared Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast with several new friends who hadn’t seen it before. I also took the opportunity to share Dear Dragon and Pirasaurs! sketches, and it was a blast to see these readers’ reactions. And then I went to bed…

only to be woken up at 6:30 by the fire alarm which quickly shut off. When it came back on for the second time three minutes later, I headed to the lobby to check it out and it (apparently it was a malfunction), but I stayed to eat breakfast, only to receive this at 7:17:

I wonder if it was @joshfunkbooks that pulled the fire alarm at the Hampton Inn. #nerdcampmi

— ©olby Sharp (@colbysharp) July 6, 2015

Followed by the #joshdidit hashtag starting to trend (for the record, I didn’t do it). While the alarms continued to blare on and off (until about 8:30), I split a waffle with Debbie,

Sharing a waffle with Debbie

and I had a nice chat with debut author Cassie Beasley who wrote Circus Mirandus.

Cassie Beasley drawing an elephant’s butt

We arrived at nErDcamp and headed to the ‘Green Room’ for presenters where everyone had a fantastic gift bag filled with homemade boutonnieres that Mrs. Sharp made out of an old Robinson Crusoe text, along with a bunch of other great stuff. I met several awesome authors over the next few hours including authors Edith Cohn (Spirit’s Key), Kristen Kittscher (The Wig in the Window), Tracy Holzer (The Secret Hum of a Daisy), Erin Soderberg (The Quirks, Puppy Pirates), Aaron Zenz (Chuckling Ducklings), Ruth McNally Barshaw (Ellie McDoodle Diaries), Louise Borden (Baseball Is …), Leisl Shurtliff (Rump, Jack), Laurie Keller (Arnie the Doughnut), Tricia Springstubb (Cody and the Fountain of Happiness),  Jerzy Drozd (Warren Commission Report), Lisa Graff (A Tangle of Knots), Lauren Castillo (Nana in the City), Philip C. Stead (Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat), Erin E. Stead (A Sick Day for Amos McGee), Matthew Cordell (Wish).

me with Lisa Graff, Lauren Castillo, Philip C. Stead, Erin E. Stead, and Matthew Cordell

[Photo by Lauren Castillo http://www.laurencastillo.com

 

Yeah, I managed to sneak into a picture with a few of these all-stars! Nearly 1,000 people filled the auditorium

Filled to Capacity

for Nerd Talks by Ruth Ayres, Sue Haney, Donalyn Miller, Lisa Graff,

Colby Sharp Live Streaming Lisa Graff’s Nerd Talk

and this awesome 8 minutes from Pernille Ripp,

I wasn’t scheduled until session 2, so I grabbed a quick bite to eat in the teacher’s lounge and hung out with Donalyn Miller’s awesome family. And then I led the “Picture Book Panel” featuring NINE Picture Book Pros: Miriam Busch (Lion, Lion), Larry Day (Nanook & Pryce), Matthew Cordell, Philip C. Stead, Erin Stead, Debbie Ridpath Ohi, Lauren Castillo, Deb Pilutti (Ten Rules of Being a Superhero), and Matt Faulkner (A Taste of Colored Water).

Busch, Day, Cordell, P. Stead, E. Stead, Ohi, Castillo, Pilutti, Faulkner

[Photo by Aliza Werner twitter.com/alizateach]

 

And there I am standing at the edge of Debbie’s view from between the pair of Team Caldecott:

Felt honored to be on Picture Bk panel with so many talented authors/illus! #nErDcampMI pic.twitter.com/IG70yaBdRP

— Debbie Ohi (@debbieohi) July 7, 2015

What a thrill it was to lead this panel with such a stellar cast! And it went very well! Everyone got a chance to speak, and we even had a few laughs (I think it was with me, not at me…).

After session 2, I went to see Mr. Schu talk about his favorite books of the year so far. He started with picture books, and had so many on his list, he got as far as … some of the picture books (sorry Non-Fiction, Middle Grade, Graphic Novels).

…

So this post is taking forever to write, and I’ll bet almost nobody is actually reading this far, and it’s Saturday night, and my wife wants to spend some time with me (yay! she loves me!), so I think I’ll just post some pictures with captions for the rest of the way.

Donalyn Miller & Mr. Schu

Picture by Debbie Ohi

 

Jess Keating as Lauren Castillo’s Troublemaker

Photo by Debbie Ohi

 

Hey @MatthewWinner, I found @joshfunkbooks! All ready to #runNerdrun! #nErDcampMI @nErDcampMI pic.twitter.com/F8gvxq7pQX

— Sherry Gick (@SherryGick) July 6, 2015

#Team81 (Colby, Lauren, Schu, & Travis Jonker)

Publishing Panel

Publishing Panel Closer Up (I’m drinking water)

Ruth McNally Barshaw’s amazing sketch of everyone on the publishing panel! We got #Barshawed!

Jennifer L. Holm, bunny ears, and me

https://twitter.com/SherryGick/status/618538061459124224

Nerds in a Car (me, Lauren Castillo, Debbie Ohi, Jason Lewis, Melissa Guerrette, Lesley Burnap)

Melissa Guerrette & Jillian Heise being suspicious

Everyone at Dinner After Day 2

So, all in all, nErDcamp was amazing. I met so many awesome educators and authors and friends.

I’ll end with this tweet (you may recognize one of the images):

#nErDcampMI 2016 will take place July 11-12 in Parma, Michigan. Registration opens early next year. #nerdybookclub pic.twitter.com/oAOUnmrFi4

— nErDcamp (@nErDcampMI) July 10, 2015

See you next summer!

Josh Funk’s Guide to Writing Picture Books (in 12 easy steps)

Yesterday I updated my official website (joshfunkbooks.com) to include a new Resources for Writers section.

For those of you that have been following this blog for a while, those 12 lessons may look familiar. I took my Tips for Writing Picture Books series and reorganized it a bit to make it a little cleaner and available all in one place.

I hope that these lessons help any prospective picture book authors, as it’s basically a massive brain dump of things I’ve learned in the last ~4 years.

Feel free to share – and enjoy!

Lady Pancake Swag Giveaway (and Week Recap)

So as not to bury the lead:

To Enter the  Swag #Giveaway, CLICK HERE to sign up for My Mailing List

More on that below. But first, I want to share the incredible events of last week:

On Sunday, the book trailer for Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast premiered on Mr. Schu’s blog: Watch. Connect. Read.
On Tuesday, Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast was named in two Top 10 Most Anticipated Releases for the Rest of 2015 lists at Unleashing Readers and Mrs. Knott’s Book Nook.
On Thursday, the announcement of my fourth picture book, JACK! (and the beanstalk) posted in the Publishers Weekly Children’s Bookshelf.
And on Saturday, Carrie Gelson, teacher/blogger from There’s a Book for That posted a fabulous article about how she used only two pins and the book trailer to develop and execute an entire lesson plan giving Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast some serious pre-book love.

It was an incredible seven days, and I see no reason to stop now. So today, I’m launching a week long contest which will result in two winners, one each of a complete three-piece-set of Team Lady Pancake OR Team Sir French Toast swag:

1 Canvas Tote Bag, 1 Magnet, & 1 Pin

How to enter:

CLICK HERE to sign up for My Mailing List

Sign up by midnight Eastern on Sunday, June 21st to enter the giveaway.

What do I plan to do with this mailing list? I’ll send out periodic emails with news about public appearances, book deals, cover reveals, and any other news that might be of interest to fans of my books. I don’t plan on sending out mail too frequently, and I promise to never share your email with anybody.

The two winners will be announced in my first ever Mailing List Email during the week of June 22nd.

So spread the word! The clock is ticking!

Big News – Book Deal: JACK! (and the beanstalk)

Great news! I sold another book!

Here’s the announcement from today’s Publisher’s Weekly Children’s Bookshelf:

Marilyn Brigham at Two Lions has acquired world rights to Jack and the Beanstalk by Josh Funk, a fresh take on a young Jack who is not keen on climbing any beanstalks and would much prefer to tell his own story. The book is slated for fall 2017. Kathleen Rushall at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency brokered the deal.

This will be my first non-rhyming (*gasp*) picture book (don’t worry, I haven’t gone prose for good…).

So get your bookshelves ready! It’s only another 800-900 days away!

Most Anticipated Releases for the Rest of 2015

Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast was named in two Top 10 Most Anticipated Releases for the Rest of 2015 lists today (see the posts from Unleashing Readers here and Mrs. Knott’s Book Nook here). I sure hope the fabulous authors of those blogs enjoy the book when it eventually gets released. And I can’t really explain what it feels like to be listed alongside four Newbery Medal Winners (Kate DiCamillo, Jennifer Holm, Katherine Applegate, Rebecca Stead), two Caldecott Medal Winners (Kevin Henkes, Brian Selznick), a whole host of other awesome authors, and a literary legend (Harper Lee).

Since I was on two lists, I thought I would pay it forward by listing my TWENTY Most Anticipated Releases for the Rest of 2015 (in order of release date).

Something Extraordinary by Ben Clanton (June 16th)

Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot vs. The Uranium Unicorns From Uranus written by Dav Pilkey and illustrated by Dan Santat (June 30th)

I’m with Cupid by Anna Staniszewski (July 7th)

First Grade Dropout written by Audrey Vernick and illustrated by Matthew Cordell (July 7th)

Princess Juniper of the Hourglass by Ammi-Joan Paquette (July 21st)

Mind Your Monsters written by Catherine Bailey and illustrated by Oriol Vidal (August 4th)

Baba Yaga’s Assistant written by Marika McCoola and illustrated by Emily Carroll (August 4th)

Double Happiness written by Nancy Tupper Ling and illustrated by Alina Chau (August 4th)

Zack Delacruz: Me and My Big Mouth by Jeff Anderson (August 4th)

Your Alien written by Tammi Sauer and illustrated by Goro Fujita (August 4th)

It’s Raining Bats & Frogs written by Rebecca Colby and illustrated by Steven Henry (August 11th)

Boo-La-La Witch Spa written by Samantha Berger and illustrated by Isabel Roxas (August 18th)

Monster Needs Your Vote written by Paul Czajak and illustrated by Wendy Grieb (August 25th)

What’s Up with This Chicken? written by Jane Sutton and illustrated by Peter J. Welling (September 15th)

The Tapper Twins Tear Up New York by Geoff Rodkey (September 29th)

How to Outfox Your Friends When You Don’t Have a Clue by Jess Keating (October 2nd)

Lenny & Lucy written by Philip C. Stead and Erin E. Stead (October 6th)

Sunny Sweet Is Not So Scary by Jennifer Ann Mann (October 13th)

Little Red Gliding Hood written by Tara Lazar and illustrated by Troy Cummings (October 27th)

Bird & Squirrel on the Edge by James Burks (October 27th)

Wow! August is gonna be a busy month for the bookstores (especially the 4th). What’s on your list?