July 17, 2026 vol. 29
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. We can also be found on Bluesky. This week's illustration is by Madhavi Bakwad.
Picture Book Giveaway
We are pleased to host a giveaway of the picture book, Hello Ocean, by Corinna Luyken (Rocky Pond Books), out now. Enter to win a copy via the widget below.
About the Book: Hello, sand. Hello, toes. Hello, ocean. Hello, hello, hello! In this glowing portrait of beachtime joy, a girl greets the many things she encounters, celebrating them all. Razor clams and sand dollars, the splish and splash of water, logs and dune grass and . . . uh-oh, garbage too. When she discovers a knotted pile of debris, she and her parents work to get it cleaned up, then go on with their busy, happy day at the shore.
About the Author-Illustrator: Corinna Luyken is the author/illustrator of five previous picture books, The Arguers, The Tree in Me (an NCTE Notable Poetry Book and Indie Bestseller), My Heart (a New York Times Best Seller), ABC and You and Me, and The Book of Mistakes (which the Wall Street Journal called "sublime"), and the illustrator of several other books, including Patchwork and Adrian Simcox Does Not Have a Horse. She lives in Western Washington, near the Salish Sea, with her family.
Hello Ocean giveaway
Middle Grade Giveaway
We are pleased to host a giveaway of the middle grade book, Tree Dragons Indonesia, by Brandy Bellitera (Sorra Books/ Shaherazad Books), out on July 21. Enter to win a copy via the widget below.
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| art © Laura Vidarte |
About the Book: The Magic School Bus meets Wild Kratz. Evan is determined to find something cool at the library to present for his research project. He wants to impress his former best friend, Oliver, into being his best friend again, and maybe get his crush's attention.
But the library has different ideas. One minute, Evan's standing in the middle of the library, looking for a unique animal to research. The next, he's in the middle of the jungle-face to face with a living dragon!
With the help of his librarian, Evan is taken on a quest into Indonesia's real-life dragons and offered the opportunity of a lifetime: become a Library Guardian to save animals!
About the Author: Brandy Bellittera has been a Kindergarten/First Grade teacher for 17 years, while living in sunny Florida. She finds daily inspiration from her students, as well as her own three children and her plethora of rescued animals; (3 dogs, 5 cats, a hamster and a Russian Tortoise.) When not teaching, being Super-Mom, or writing, she dreams of traveling, finally finding the bottom of her TBR pile, or going to the cinema. Her stories have appeared in Little Thoughts Press Magazine as well as Cricket Magazine. Brandy is represented by Morgan Hughes at Fine Print Literary. She can connect with her on Instagram or Facebook @InkedAuthor 31, or on her website: www.theinkedauthor.com
Tree Dragons Indonesia giveaway
July 30 8 p.m.-9:30 p.m. ET Read Like an Editor-and a Child-with Reader Response The first of a 3-part set of workshops by Kids Books Revisions Plus, each featuring a key insight related to writing and revising. In Harold Underdown’s opening workshop, learn a different way of understanding of how children read and gain a deeper understanding of revision. When we work on a book, writers and editors commonly use craft terms, such as “plot” and “character” and “voice” and other more specialized words. But our audience, children and teens, rarely use these words. They may be learning them in school, but they don’t experience reading our books in that way (nor do adults, of course). They respond with their feelings, thoughts, and memories, actively building meaning from a text as they read. In his presentation, Harold will introduce you to “reader response theory,” and share his latest thoughts on how to use it to revise more effectively. He will explain the different approaches of the literary critic and the reader response theorist. And he will then apply reader response to a close reading of texts from across the children’s/YA range, including fiction and nonfiction. There will be handouts, resources, and time for questions and comments.
July 21 5 p.m. PT/ 8 p.m. ET Get it Right: Stress-Free Research That Adds Depth, Authenticity and Meaning to Your Book If your story takes place in the real world, you have to get it right. Whether you're writing information-rich nonfiction or a fun story about a child's hobbies, readers (and editors) need to believe that you know what you're writing about. Join Patricia Newman, an award-winning author — and true research wizard — who will teach you exactly where to find reliable information, how to manage it, and how to put it to work to make your nonfiction or fiction book accurate, authentic and truly alive. And, even more importantly, she'll guide you away from the traps and pitfalls that await in the age of AI and misinformation.
Sept. 15, 17 7-8:15 p.m. Rhyming Picture Books: From Forced to Verse To rhyme or not to rhyme… a question that fills the picture book writer’s mind! Join Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen and Anne Marie Pace for this two-night mini to gain beginning knowledge about rhyming picture books in today’s market. This program is a great fit if you’re looking for a short course of two, 75-minute sessions offering limited interaction with the community, but loads of information. Closed captioning available and limited interaction in the chat (access to the recordings through October 31, 2026).
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