The Weekly 411 (2/16/24)

© Tamara Piper

 

Feb. 16, 2024 vol. 7

The Weekly 411 gathers all the links added to Kidlit411 each week. To receive this post by email, sign up for our email updates. Are you on Facebook? Join our Kidlit411 group for conversations and camaraderie. This week's illustration is by Tamara Piper.

Picture Book Giveaway

We are pleased to host a giveaway of the picture book, What's New, Daniel? written and illustrated by Micha Archer (Penguin Young Readers Group) out on Feb. 20. Enter to win a copy via the Rafflecopter below.

About the Book: Caldecott Honor winner Micha Archer’s gloriously detailed collages invite readers into Daniel’s blossoming world, encouraging them to appreciate all the wonderful new things in their own lives, big and small.

"What’s new?" We casually say this to each other all the time, but when Daniel’s grandpa asks him this question, Daniel’s curiosity is sparked and he’s determined to really find out! And there is so much new stuff to report on, since their local park is brimming with spring life. Birds have reappeared from their winter journeys, ducklings are hatching, and polliwogs are growing long legs—just like Daniel!

 

About the Author-Illustrator:  

Micha Archer (michaarcher.com) wrote and illustrated the Caldecott Honor winner Wonder Walkers, as well as the Ezra Jack Keats Award winner Daniel Finds a Poem and its companion, Daniel’s Good Day, and has also illustrated several other picture books, including Girl Running (by Annette Bay Pimentel). Micha works in oil and collage on paper she creates with homemade stamps and layered tissue paper. She comes from a long line of artists and teachers and taught for many years in a kindergarten. Micha lives in western Massachusetts in the house she and her husband built, surrounded by gardens and forests to roam in.

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Picture Book Giveaway 

We are pleased to host a giveaway of the picture book, Yumbo Gumbo, by Kelia V. Dawson, illustrated by Katie Crumpton (Charlesbridge 2024). Enter to win a copy via the Rafflecopter below!

About the Book: Annabelle’s papí is finally going to give her a gumbo cooking lesson! But her family can’t agree on which kind to cook for dinner. Voting seems fair. But their votes for chicken, okra, or seafood keep ending in a tie. How will they decide? 

 

About the Author: Keila V. Dawson writes fiction and nonfiction stories that edutain and inspire readers. A New Orleans native, and experience working and living in different states and countries, has inspired her love of world history and cultures. A two-time Ohioana finalist, and International Reading Association award recipient, her books have been featured on the many best books and state reading lists. She is a coeditor of No World Too Big: Young People Fighting Global Climate Change, No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making History, and the forthcoming No Brain the Same: Young Neurodivergent Activists Shaping Our Future. She is the author of Opening the Road: Victor Hugo Green and His Green Book and The King Cake Baby. Wherever she lives, she cooks gumbo. YUMBO!

 

About the Illustrator: Ever since she was five years old, Katie Crumpton knew she wanted to be an artist. To pursue her art education, she moved from South Carolina to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she now lives and works as a freelance artist. Katie is the illustrator of several children's books, including A Stitch Through Time and I, Too, Sing America. 

Buy your copy here.

 

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For Writers

What is a Narrative Arc? A Guide to Storytelling Structure

10 Dos and Don'ts for Writing Realistic Dialogue 

How to Write a Powerful Ending

Picture Books

Turn that Picture Book Page

Ten Essential Picture Book Elements

10 Tips For Writing Children's Picture Books

Word Count for Novels and Children’s Books

Revisions

Self-Editing Basics: 10 Simple Ways to Edit Your Own Book 

Why Don't Agents Explain their Rejections

Contests & Awards

Feb. 22, 8 a.m.-8p.m. EST #PBPitch

• What: pitch your picture book idea on Twitter(X)
• Prize: attention and invitation to query from agents and editors

Conferences, Workshops & Retreats

Feb. 23-24 SCBWI Virtual Winter Conference.  Couldn't make it to the In-Person Winter Conference in New York City? Join us at this online event featuring the recorded keynotes and panels from the New York Conference, a choice of three deep-dive Creative Labs, a live marketing pitch-off with the opportunity to win money to market your book PLUS networking and peer critique opportunities! Video recordings of all the Virtual Conference sessions will be made available to attendees for 30 days after the event.

April 5-May 2 Inked Voices Workshop: Young Adult Fiction First Pages with Sara Rivers   In this intimate workshop, you'll receive a written critique of your opening pages (3750 words) from Sera Rivers at Speilburg Literary, plus get the opportunity to speak to Sera individually in the live group call that follows critiques. You'll also exchange critiques within your group of up to 7 writers. (Inked Voices members $120/ nonmembers $145)

April 26, 12:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. CST Southern Breeze SCBWI Spring Conference Joint excellent faculty in a series of in depth intensives for writers and illustrators: 

• Picture Book: Behind the Scenes with an Editor Frances Gilbert, VP, Editor-in-Chief, Doubleday Books for Young Readers, Random House Children’s Books
• Nonfiction: Revise, Rethink, Reimagine: A Deep Dive into Revision with Carol Hinz, Associate Publisher, Millbrook Press and Carolrhoda Books, Lerner Publishing Group
• Novels: Getting Your Novel Submission Ready: Kristen Terrette, Literary Manager, Martin Literary & Media Management
• Illustration: Destroy Your Dummy Mallory Grigg, Senior Art Director, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group