DIGGING FOR TROY, THE ADVENTURES OF NANNY PIGGINS and

This week, I'm reading:

 DIGGING FOR TROY: FROM HOMER TO HISARLIK by Jill Rubalcaba and Eric H. Cline (Charlesbridge, 2011)

Jill Rubalcaba and Eric H. Cline recount the legend of the Trojan War and then dig into the archaeological evidence recovered from Hisarlik, the site believed by many to have once been Troy. The authors detail the scientific methods of the various archaeologists who excavated the ruins from the late 1800s through the present day.






THE ADVENTURES OF NANNY PIGGINS by R.A. Spratt (Little Brown, 2010)
When stingy Mr. Green planted a Nanny Wanted sign on his front lawn for his three children, he had no idea his ad would be answered by a pig. Yes, a pig. A fabulously sassy and impeccably dressed pig as a matter of fact! With her insatiable urge to eat chocolate (and feed chocolate to everyone she loves), her high-flying spirit, and her unending sense of fun, Nanny Piggins takes Derrick, Samantha, and Michael on a year of surprises, yummy treats, and adventures they'll never forget.





What I'm working on:
Revisions on a picture book biography
First chapter of new middle grade novel

Double-Digit Fiction - The Word

In honor of Summer, I've dipped into far corners of my personal archive. Many moons ago, this won a double-digit fiction contest. Should it have won? I dunno, but every time I get near a pool, it comes to mind.

THE WORD    (99 words)

Mark stepped gingerly into the cold,

sending ripples of water to break
on the many rivals who encircled him.   

Taunting grins met his gaze. 

Then the world went dark.
Still.
Silent.

Rules of engagement were clear.
Seize the enemy, or be doomed.
There was only one way for him to survive.

Bait the enemy with "The word."

Waves lapped at his waist as he shouted.

Voices jumbled, then hushed in response.  

He lunged left. 

Missed!  

He dove right.   

Nothing!

Hot breaths chased goose bumps down his spine as
he bellowed one last time.
The word, "Marco."
     "Polo."
Enemy captured!

Reading: Exercise for the Writing Muscles

Many moons ago, the college professor who recommended me for the Honors English program, despite the fact that I didn't have enough hours to be eligible at the time, took me under his wing. The last day of class, he walked me to the door and offered the most valuable advice from my limited college experience. To be a great writer, you must be a great reader. To exercise the writing muscles so that they are flexible enough to sway, tense, reach, and stretch with literary ease, a writer must read everything; the good, the bad, and the ugly. By doing so, your individual style begins to surface as you subconsciously process the literary merit of each book.

I believed him.

Now, as I prepare to stretch my writing muscles with my own first novel, I read with an eye for openings, pacing, voice, story arc, character development, and resolutions. For writers, books contain more than stories. They are art to be studied. I thought I'd share my most recent reads.

Stay tuned as I add more titles in later posts.

MOON OVER MANIFEST by Clare Vanderpool (Delacorte Press, 2010)  From Booklist
*Starred Review* After a life of riding the rails with her father, 12-year-old Abilene can’t understand why he has sent her away to stay with Pastor Shady Howard in Manifest, Missouri, a town he left years earlier; but over the summer she pieces together his story. In 1936, Manifest is a town worn down by sadness, drought, and the Depression, but it is more welcoming to newcomers than it was in 1918, when it was a conglomeration of coal-mining immigrants who were kept apart by habit, company practice, and prejudice. Abilene quickly finds friends and uncovers a local mystery. Their summerlong “spy hunt” reveals deep-seated secrets and helps restore residents’ faith in the bright future once promised on the town’s sign. Abilene’s first-person narrative is intertwined with newspaper columns from 1917 to 1918 and stories told by a diviner, Miss Sadie, while letters home from a soldier fighting in WWI add yet another narrative layer. Vanderpool weaves humor and sorrow into a complex tale involving murders, orphans, bootlegging, and a mother in hiding. With believable dialogue, vocabulary and imagery appropriate to time and place, and well-developed characters, this rich and rewarding first novel is “like sucking on a butterscotch. Smooth and sweet.”

HOW NOT TO BE POPULAR by Jennifer Ziegler (Delacorte Press, 2008)   I'm embarrassed to admit that it's taken me four years to "meet" Sugar Magnolia Dempsey (Maggie). I certainly understand why a movie is in the works. Fabulous!

From Jenny's website...   Maggie Dempsey is tired of moving all over the country. Her parents are blowin’-in-the-wind hippies who uproot her every few months to go to a new city. When Maggie was younger, she thought their life was fun and adventurous. Now that she’s a teenager, she hates it.
Each time she moved, she left behind good friends, a great school, and a real feeling of belonging. But this last time she moved it was even worse: she left behind a boyfriend, too.
Now that they’re moving to Austin, Texas, Maggie knows better. She’s not going to make friends. She’s not going to fit in. And she’s definitely not going to fall for the alpha hottie who won’t leave her alone—no matter how gorgeous he is.
Instead, she will dress like a mental patient, in muumuus and flowered swim caps. She will say and do the wrong things at the wrong times. She will have a bad hair day every day. Anything to prevent her from liking this new place—and prevent the new people from liking her. That way it won’t hurt at all when she has to leave.
Only … things don’t go exactly as planned. A misfit won’t take the hint and becomes Maggie’s friend anyway. And as wrecked as she is over the boyfriend she left behind, Maggie feels … something … for the last person she would have imagined. Who knew not being popular could be so hard?

MASTERPIECE by Elise Broach  (Henry Holt, 2008)  I'm normally not drawn to stories with anthropomorphism, but this one is too charming to ignore.            From Booklist...

James lives an invisible existence in a grand apartment on the Upper East Side. His mother, busy with her new husband and baby and her climb up the Manhattan social ladder, has little time for him. By contrast, Marvin, a beetle whose overprotective, extended family resides behind James’ mother’s kitchen, gets more attention than he wants. The two find friendship when James’ artist father gives him a pen-and-ink set, and Marvin discovers his talent for “drawing,” crafting delicate, museum-quality miniatures with his legs. When Marvin and James find themselves embroiled in a plot to steal a Dürer drawing from the Metropolitan Museum, they must find creative ways to communicate to foil the thieves and protect the masterpiece. Murphy’s own pen-and-ink spot art reflects the text’s sweet insouciance. With suspense, art history, complex family relationships (human and arthropod), and a resonant friendship, this enjoyable outing will satisfy the reserved and adventurous alike. Grades 3-6

 ESPERANZA RISING by Pam Munoz Ryan (Scholastic, 2002)
Another example of my tardiness in reading a great novel. This book is full of tension, clear hopes and desires, and characters who are transformed by their situations. A truly great example of a novel with all the right elements.
         From School Library Journal...
Ryan uses the experiences of her own Mexican grandmother as the basis for this compelling story of immigration and assimilation, not only to a new country but also into a different social class. Esperanza's expectation that her 13th birthday will be celebrated with all the material pleasures and folk elements of her previous years is shattered when her father is murdered by bandits. His powerful stepbrothers then hold her mother as a social and economic hostage, wanting to force her remarriage to one of them, and go so far as to burn down the family home. Esperanza's mother then decides to join the cook and gardener and their son as they move to the United States and work in California's agricultural industry. They embark on a new way of life, away from the uncles, and Esperanza unwillingly enters a world where she is no longer a princess but a worker. Set against the multiethnic, labor-organizing era of the Depression, the story of Esperanza remaking herself is satisfyingly complete, including dire illness and a difficult romance. Except for the evil uncles, all of the characters are rounded, their motives genuine, with class issues honestly portrayed.

 THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH by Norton Juster  (yearling, 1961)      YOWZA! Another book I should have read eons ago. Fans of ALICE IN WONDERLAND will love this book, full of brilliant puns, plays on words, satire, and irony, you'll find yourself scratching your head and giggling at the same time. Perhaps that's why an animated film was produced in 1970 and why Maurice Sendak wrote an Appreciation to the book.
     From the book jacket...  For Milo, everything's a bore. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through only because he's got nothing better to do. But on the other side, things seem different. Milo visits the island of Conclusions (you get there by jumping), learns about time from a ticking watchdog named Tock, and even embarks on a quest to rescue Rhyme and Reason! Somewhere along the way, Milo realizes something astonishing. Life is far from dull. In fact, it's exciting beyond his wildest dreams...

Interview: Don Tate- Illustrating Children's Books

Don Tate is an award winning illustrator of children's books, a graphic designer, and sought-after speaker on the subjects of writing and illustrating. And, though he's currently keeping his writing projects quiet, rest assured he will be adding published 'author' to his professional resume very soon. Don graciously agreed to an interview based partly on questions kids have asked during my own time in classrooms. Whether you're a teacher, a young reader, or a budding picture book writer or illustrator, I'm sure you'll find Don's responses insightful. And speaking of teachers, go ahead and share this with your students. After all, most of the questions come from young, curious minds.

You can learn more about Don Tate by visiting his personal website, or his blog presence at Devas T. Rants and Raves, the Brown Bookshelf, and the Texas Sweethearts and Scoundrels.

 Don, congratulations on your latest books, RON'S BIG MISSION, written by Rose Blue (Dutton, 2009), and SHE LOVED BASEBALL: THE EFFA MANLEY STORY, written by Audrey Vernick (Harper Collins, 2010.) 

When did you know you wanted to be an artist?

I’ve been drawing since I was old enough to hold a pencil in my hands, so I’ve always known I’d create art of some kind. At one point, I said I’d be a toy-maker because I loved making things from junk found around the house. I also thought I’d grow up to be the Black Jim Henson (creator of the Muppets), because I loved making puppets from socks and thrown out materials.

Don Tate looking over his Duke Ellington sketches

A high school drafting teacher encouraged me to become an architect, but I didn’t like the constraint of drafting tools, and I certainly didn’t like anything having to do with numbers. 
Of all the avenues for illustrations and art, why did you decide to illustrate children’s books?  Children’s book creation is in my blood. My aunt, Eleanora E. Tate wrote (still writes) teen novels. She inspired me. Through her, I found the perfect outlet for my drawing skills.  In addition to illustrating for children’s books, I also license my art to product manufacturers -- t-shirts, scrap-booking, textile, wallpaper, calendars.

How many books have you illustrated? I’ve illustrated somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 to 45 books, trade and educational. I’ve illustrated 10 trade picture books, including Say Hey: A Song of Willie Mays; Sure As Sunrise: Stories of Bruh Rabbit; Ron’s Big Mission; She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story. Most recently, I finished Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite, written by Anna Celenza. It’s the story of how Duke Ellington Billy Strayhorn collaborated to remake Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite into a jazz version. It will publish with Charlesbridge in the fall.

Are you illustrating a book (s) right now? I am illustrating several books right now. I’m illustrating a series of chapter books for Magic Wagon, and I’m illustrating a trade picture book written by Eve Bunting. It’s a bit early to discuss the subject matter, but I can say that Eve has written a brilliant book.

What other kinds of art do you do?  My art has been used in many ways. Primarily, I’m a commercial artist. That means that I create art that will be used as a product or to sell a product. My art has been used on t-shirts, billboards, greeting cards, fabrics, calendars, restaurant menus, television commercials, advertising, almost everything you can think of. I also work as an artist for the newspaper, so many of my illustrations appear in the Austin American-Statesman.

Okay, inquiring young minds want to know: How do you illustrate a children's book?  The first thing I do is read the manuscript. As I read, images come to mind, which I quickly sketch on to paper. These are called thumbnail sketches. I use the thumbnail sketches as a guide for creating tighter sketches later. I spend lots of time on the internet, in the library, and in book stores researching images that I can use to paint from. I also take lots of photographs to draw and paint from. Sometimes I create clay models of the characters I need to create, or build models using 3D programs. Once my tighter sketches are approved by my editor and art director, I paint my final art using acrylic paint on paper.

   
Do you work for one book publisher like a regular employee? I work for several publishers, and I’m not considered an employee like the editor and art director. Publishers hire me as an independent worker.

How does an illustrator get an assignment?  Depends. Some illustrators get work on their own. Others use an agent, who finds work for them.  I’ve worked both ways.

Can you say no to a project if you don’t like it?  That’s what I like about working for myself. I get to say no when I need to.

Do you think through the entire book before beginning sketches?  Yes, I read the entire book, and think about how the story will pace out. I try to create interesting angles so each page is different.

Do you choose where the page-turns will be or does the publisher?  I’ve worked both ways. Sometimes the publisher decides how the pages will break. With Duke Ellington, I designed the layout and page turns, for the most part. With some other books, I receive a layout and I pretty much stick to it. With the Eve Bunting book, my art director has sent a layout. But she’s also sent galleys that I can cut apart, should I decide I want to deviate from the layout.

Why doesn’t a picture book begin on the first page of the book?  It does. It begins with a title page, which sometimes includes small icon-ish art that best represents the story. Other times, the title page can be used as a lead-in to the story.

How much time do you spend on each book?  Usually it takes about three weeks to illustrate 3 to four spreads, and about 8 months to a year to complete a book.

When you finish illustrations for a new book, what happens then?  I send the art to the publisher, where it is scanned and made digital, so that the book designer can lay out the entire project on a computer. Because the images are digital, revisions can be completed in Photoshop. Computer files are sent to printers on the other side of the world, China, Singapore, other places. Several months later, I get to see color proofs.

What medium do you prefer? Oil, watercolor, etc?  Both. I use many mediums. But I especially like oil and acrylic paint. With the Duke Ellington book, I used acrylic watercolors and ink.

What are some other common mediums used by illustrators?  All types of mediums ‘ colored pencil, chalk, watercolor. Computer art is becoming more popular. Many artist are now drawing directly into the computer.

What other art tools do you use for illustrating?  I think the tool I use the most is my Sharpie. I like to sketch with a Sharpie marker because I can block in large areas and quickly see how shapes relate to each other. And because I’m still old-school, I use my t-square, triangle and Exacto knifes. How do you use a computer for planning and illustrating books? I use a program called InDesign for page layout. A program called Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop for drawing and painting. Sometimes I take digital photos of my paintings along the way, and then upload them to my computer where I can experiment with colors.

Do you have a favorite subject to illustrate? For example, do you especially like illustrating people, or sports, or animals, or nature, etc?

I enjoy painting almost everything, but I think my favorite is faces. I see faces in just about everything.

What kind of education is best for someone who wants to be an illustrator?  I went to a two-year community college. There, I learned about commercial art and advertising. I was trained to be a commercial artist. But I’d recommend getting a four-year degree. I didn’t get much math and English, and I’ve found it to be so important later in my career. Any advice for kids who may want to pursue this art form? Just draw. Draw every day. And make stuff from things found around the house.

How do you, as illustrator,  research your subjects so that your illustrations are historically accurate?   I spend a lot of time on the internet -- Google searches, historical photo archives, online museums. I also check out books and DVDs.

Has any subject been especially difficult to master visually?

For me, sports subjects are always difficult because I’m not a sports person. My copy editors at Harper Collins kept telling me, “That’s not how you hold a baseball bat.” With the Willie Mays book, one of the designers asked me to flip an image for better presentation. It never occurred to me that that would make Willie throw with his left hand. Those kind of things trip me up.

Have you ever been asked to redo an illustration?  Oh, yes, please, many times. Not necessarily at the painting stage, but I redo sketches all the time.

You are also an author. Please tell us about your current writing projects.  I don’t feel comfortable talking about them in detail. But almost all of the stories I write involve little-known, everyday people who do great things in the face of big obstacles.

As an author/illustrator, which comes first- images or text?  I’m sure that varies from illustrator to illustrator. But I tend to write first. I perfect my manuscript, and then I start to draw. At that point, the words have to be rewritten.

Once again, you can learn more about Don by visiting his personal website, his blog presence at Devas T. Rants and Raves, the Brown Bookshelf, and the Texas Sweethearts and Scoundrels.

Interview: Lynn Rowe Reed on ROSCOE AND THE PELICAN RESCUE

 
Lynn Rowe Reed is the author of seven books for children and illustrator of thirteen additional titles. An artist for the past twenty years, her art has been featured in numerous venues including The Wall Street Journal and has been featured at the Best of Book Illustration Show at the Museum of American Illustration in New York.

Lynn's latest picture book release, ROSCOE AND THE PELICAN RESCUE (Holiday House, 2011) is the fictional tale of a boy looking forward to a summer vacation at his cousin’s Louisiana home, only to discover that the recent Gulf Oil spill disaster has reached Louisiana beaches where an alarming number of wildlife are suffering as a consequence of pervasive oil. The characters join in on the rescue mission, focusing much of their attention on cleaning pelicans and restoring them to health before releasing them into cleaner waters. The story pays tribute to the many real-life volunteers whose post-oil spill rescue mission saved countless animals.

How did the unprecedented Gulf oil disaster affect you personally? What
inspired this story? 
Like all "observers" of the gulf oil disaster, I was appalled, sickened, and
heartbroken by the images of oil-covered animals shown on television. And I
was especially upset by the vulnerability of all wildlife, especially the
pelicans. When the horrible photos started showing up in late May, I
thought, "Someone's going to do a picture book on this." Then I immediately
thought, "Why not me?"

The book hit bookstore shelves one year after the tragic oil spill caused by
the explosion of Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico.  How did the
timeliness of the disaster affect the book¹s rapid path to publication? Please share your journey from initial idea to publication?
Right from the get-go, I pointed out to my editor, Mary Cash, that it would
be fabulous if we could get the work done in time for the spring list. I
never thought she'd buy the notion, as it was already June when she offered
the contract. A couple of days later, Mary called after consulting with
everyone there who would be involved in the process, and surprisingly said
"All systems are a-go!" I was shocked! Everyone at Holiday House  from
production people to marketing  believed in this project and wanted to do
everything possible to get it done as quickly as possible.

That decision meant that all text and art would have to be completed by
September 1; ultimately I would have just one and a half months to do all of
the twenty illustrations. I was in such pain by mid-July, I could barely
paint! It took three incompetent orthopedic docs and one fabulous physical
therapist to figure out that my overworked muscles had pulled my top two
ribs out of place, thus creating a dent in my upper back! Six therapy
sessions and lots of stretching and work on my part restored the position of
my ribs.

Your fictionalized approach with a first person point of view makes the story
very accessible to ages four to eight and your whimsical illustration style
seems so well suited for that age.  What inspired you to write about this
tragedy specifically for this age group? 
I'd like to take credit for consciously making some decisions, but the truth is that I often use that first person point of view, and I seem to naturally
write for the four to eight age group. Having said that, I imagined as well
that many kids of that age were feeling great sadness by the images we were
all seeing on the news each night, and a story validating their sadness
would be a good thing.

Were your characters molded after real people and was Roscoe modeled after a
real dog?    
I often use names from people in my real life for some of my characters, and
I did so with this story. I have a grown son, in fact, named Tony, and an
adorable great niece named Addison. My golden retriever and sidekick
Sam-I-Am served as model for Roscoe. Sam goes to the studio every day with
me, so it was great having a model for Roscoe by my side.

One of the most interesting facts about this book is that my publisher
brought in an expert consultant to check all text and art for inaccuracies.
Unfortunately, I was about 75 % finished with the work, so my first
inclination was to jump out my studio window (yes, it's two stories high!).
Once I got over the initial shock, I realized what a great move that was!
The expert, Jay Holcomb, found lots of minor details  some in the text and
some in the art  that needed to be modified. Many of the changes had to do
with being very specific about the cleaning process  how it is done, who
can do it, etc. Some were little details, such as the pelicans could not be
babies as originally written, because babies are usually in nests on islands
away from the shore, and the trio (Tony, Addison and Roscoe) would not have
been off shore. So the word "baby" was dropped and the scale of the pelicans
was downsized. LOTS of little details like that.

What surprised you most, during the process of creating this story?
I was so used to creating books with a very determined sequence of events. First, the manuscript is revised until it is nailed down 100%. Then the dummy is completed 100% before moving on to the illustrations, and so forth. This book was definitely the exception to normal! There seemed to be no time to complete each step perfectly before the next stage began. Especially with the expert coming in at such a late stage and making changes. It turned out that the manuscript was not completely finished until the art was done. We needed every moment available, and since art has to get separated for printing, we got that out the door first. So I would say that the fluidity, and ever-evolving process greatly surprised me. It also provided an element of energy I've never felt before in the book making process.

As author/illustrator, which came first to you – the text for the story or the images?
As I described above, that would normally be a no-brainer. The text always comes first. But with this book, all creative steps were happening simultaneously, and it was great fun working in that fashion for a change!

I will say that often when I'm writing a story I do, in fact, "see" images during the writing process, and I sometimes do an occasional doodle so I don't "lose that thought."

What was your illustration process for this book?
This was the first book I’ve done in a long while that I didn’t incorporate photographed or digitally scanned objects into my art. But then this story is entirely different than any story I’ve ever written. With its strong and compelling message, I felt like the art should function entirely to tell the story. It somehow seemed wrong to distract from the message by embellishing the art unnecessarily. So I painted in acrylic on canvas, and called it a day.

Your art interests extend beyond book illustration. Would you mind sharing your other artistic endeavors?Well, with three books to my credit over the past year, I’ve had very little time recently to “play” with my art. I love to paint on large canvases, and my personal work looks nothing like my kids’ book art. I also dabble in clay (I have a kiln in my basement), and I have several large, boldly painted steel sculptures that I made for my yard.

I also illustrate for other commercial clients. I have a drawing on the npr website, and I recently did two illustrations for a Harvard alumni magazine.

What can we expect next from you?
I will soon be illustrating Robin Pulver’s next book with Holiday House. It will be another language arts concept – our fifth together! I LOVE illustrating Robin’s books. She’s really clever, and the work is truly fun.

I was so completely burned out after finishing Roscoe and the Pelican Rescue  seven months ago that I didn’t have an ounce of desire to do another book at that time. Those who know me would find that weird. I’m typically an energizer bunny, workaholic, maniacally creative, tireless artist! But I poured my heart and soul into Roscoe, and used them both up. Now that I’ve caught my breath, I feel like doing something completely off-the-wall crazy , and I just started working on the writing today. I won’t reveal the idea, but let’s just say I don’t think there’s a limit to how much flatulence one can put in the world of kids’ books.