According to Publisher’s Weekly Children’s Bookshelf, Politics and Prose, an independent bookstore in Washington, DC, has opened a new section for older teens.  “We needed a separate physical space with more sophisticated titles for our high school readers,” says bookseller Heidi Powell, who has been actively working on creating a special section for older teens, [ Read the full article… ]

I was pleasantly surprised when I woke up and saw this headline on Yahoo: Writer’s Welcome A Literary President- Elect.  What? Writers getting some sort of national mention? Are we in some sort of bizarro world now that the elections are over? We very well may be. Writing is the ugly step child of the [ Read the full article… ]

  One reason why I love children’s books is their power to move, affirm, delight and inspire. It amazes me the scope of emotions and topics they cover. When I needed help explaining to my daughter what voting and election day were all about, they were there. I turned to books like If I Ran for President by Catherine Stier [ Read the full article… ]

As you know, the window is now closed for 28 Days Later submissions.  And being the good little Brown Bookshelf member that I am, I’m getting a jump on my research. One of the things we do, beyond accepting public submissions, is stay abreast of what’s out there so we can add names to the [ Read the full article… ]

Hard to believe, but November 1st is literally around the corner.  Please continue to nominate books for the 28 Days Later campaign.  Though I’m not surprised, I’ve noticed that many of the noms are for picture books.  We could really use a good influx of YA and MG noms – as this is the area [ Read the full article… ]

I recently received advanced copies of Ron’s Big Mission (Dutton, 2009), my most recently illustrated book! It is written by Corrine Naden and the late Rose Blue. I was just as excited last week opening the mail, as I was 20 years ago when first received advanced copies of a book I’d illustrated. My first [ Read the full article… ]

Oh, those Reader Girlz…where do they find the time? I’m telling you, these ladies have clearly found time in a bottle and are not sharing it with the rest of us.  Justina, Mitali, Dia and Lorie Ann, what’s your secret? What I’m raving about is Reader Girlz upcoming chat series. In honor of Teen Read [ Read the full article… ]