How to use this Page

The Conference ended and I was exhausted, exhilerated and sad to leave a conference that was stimulating, dynamic, offered so much information and so many friends.  Loved every minute - thankyou so much to Lin Oliver and Steve Mooser for the conference, friendship, the hospitality at their homes and taking Youth Literature to the world.

Ellen Hopkins and a crowd of authors are coming to The Hughenden in Sydney to party next year. Fabulous.

Well, everyone is so bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning (not really) but they are trickling in to listen to Lin Oliver get us prepped for the wonderful upcoming panel. But already, she's got us cracking up!

She's reading from the submitted jokes. We were asked to take a popular children's book and change the title... something to reflect the recession. One of the winners: "Cloudy with a chance of Spam".

Getting packed in here now....

posted by Suzanne Young

(Pictured above: Bartlett Bear about to blog, Sherman Alexie speaking, and SCBWI TEAM BLOG ready to live blog!)

Hi! Paula Yoo and her stuffed bear Bartlett blogging LIVE at the conference. As a former journalist, this is bringing back nightmare flashbacks of my newspaper days. I thought I left that world behind! LOL! Please follow our Twitter feeds for constant live tweets as well. Mine is at http://twitter.com/paulayoo. I've been tweeting non-stop with live photos so check 'em out! And you even get such SCBWI TEAM BLOG exclusives like what Jay Asher ate for breakfast! (Cheerios, coffee, a banana) and my special "Elizabeth Law Fun Facts" sprinkled throughout the day (did you know she was a lifeguard in high school?)

Right  now, Sherman Alexie is speaking so please check everyone else's Twitter tweets because I'm just blogging instead right now at our blogger table. (We get our own extension cords etc. All the other conference goers are jealous of our hi tech status! LOL!) BTW, I will post a live shot of Sheman Alexie on my Twitter page as soon as I post this blog.

A quick recap so far... the faculty line-up did their traditional "WORD PARADE" where each faculty member said one word that they wanted people to remember and think about during the conference. Sherman Alexie just wondered what the adult authors would do since he is also, of course, a famous adult novelist as well as a YA author. (He ruminated about what word Jonathan Franzen would say...!) 

Some words from the faculty included: "Intertwinkieularity" by Ingrid Law; "Joint Collaborative Process" by Dan Santat, Lisa Yee & Arthur Levine; "Greenhouse fire" by Sarah Davies; "YES!" (with a fist pump) by Nancy Sanders. Please check the Twitter pages of Lee Wind, Jolie Stekly, Suzanne Young & Jaime Temairik for more funny words!

Some statistical highlights from SCBWI Executive Director Lin Oliver:

-- A new record of conference enrollment - 911 registered this year!

-- 712 conference goers are women

-- 120 conference goers are men (LOL!)

-- 40 of 50 states represented (normally South Dakota has never sent someone here but this year, finally, there is a conference goer from South Dakota! She stood up to great applause!)

-- More than a dozen countries are also represented at the conference

-- Almost half of the concert goers have been published

-- Some interesting full-time jobs among conference goers, including a professional beekeeper ("I'm sure she's very sweet," Lin quipped) and one brave man who claimed his job title was "a handsome rogue."

Okay, time to listen more to Sherman Alexie and post a live Twitter pic. He's hilarious and insightful and everyone is laughing at his jokes as he talks about his childhood growing up on the reservation, his education, and how books opened a new world for him. It's both hilarious and poignant. Will post more blogs later with quotes, and fellow bloggers are live Tweeting some of his quotes so check it all out via Twitter and #scbwi09. Stay tuned for more blogs! 

Posted by Paula Yoo 

photo by Paul Mannix www.flickr.com

*Middle-grade contemporary novel
*Fourth-grade boy as main character
*Rating: Two hysterical authors, Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver, write a truly funny novel that boys (and girls, too) will love!

Short, short summary: The first book in the Hank Zipzer series, Niagara Falls or Does It? introduces us to underachiever Hank Zipzer. Hank is starting school–fourth grade–and he just so happens to get Ms. Adolf instead of the cool teacher. She wants the class to write a 5-paragraph essay, and Hank can’t think of anything worse to do. In the meantime, he and his friends form a magic act and practice for their first gig at the bowling alley. When his parents find out he has to write the essay, it cuts into his rehearsal time, and so Hank decides to build a living essay–a model of Niagara Falls like no one has ever seen before. He has a lot to say about the Falls and his family’s trip there, but he just can’t seem to get it from his head to the paper. He is super excited about his project until the flood gates open–literally. Join Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver for a great start to a funny series, Hank Zipzer: The Mostly True Confessions of the World’s Best Underachiever.

So, what do I do with this book?

1. This book is a great read aloud, especially if you are teaching writing 5-paragraph essays. Some of your students may be feeling the same way as Hank, and you can open up discussions on difficulties they are having writing these essays. Many children feel the same way as Hank Zipzer–the information is in their heads, but how do they get it down on paper? Students can even journal about this topic and share their feelings about writing, math, science, and so on.

2. Niagara Falls is an obvious topic of study while reading this book. Students can make a list of all the facts that Hank Zipzer quotes in the book about the Falls. You can also challenge each of your students or your children (if you homeschool) to find one more fact about the Falls that Hank has not stated. Ask students to write it on an index card. You can make a Niagara Falls fact bulletin board. If you want to be really brave, you can try a class project and build the Falls like Hank does. Just hope that your tubing and pipes hold up!

3. At the end of the novel, one of Hank’s teachers helps him out a little by talking to his parents. During the talk, his dad basically says he is lazy and doesn’t try hard enough. Ask your students to describe Hank and his character in a paragraph. Then ask them to write another paragraph and support either his dad’s point of view or his teacher’s. Tell them to use specific events in the book to support their opinions.

For more information on the Hank Zipzer series by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver, please see the Hank Zipzer website.

Saturday Morning Panel: Today in Children's Publishing...

Since I stayed up past two a.m. last night, I didn't make it to the first morning ballroom session on picture books with Arthur Levine, but I did end up having a serendipitious breakfast with illustrator Melanie Hope Greenberg (who was sporting some great temporary tattoos of mermaids in support of her book Mermaids in Parade) and we talked about picture books, so I kept to the morning theme.

After some sub-par $8 oatmeal, I made it to the Today in Children's Publishing panel featuring Brenda Bowen of The Bowen Press and Walden Pond Press, Debra Dorfman of Scholastic, David Gale of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Dianne Hess of Blue Sky and Scholastic Press, Elizabeth Law of Egmont Books USA, and Allyn Johnston of S&S imprint Beach Lane Books. (Interesting to note the the majority of the panel have recently taken on their current positions and several--Bowen Press, Egmont and Beach Lane--are brand new imprints.)

Lin Oliver moderated the panel. One question she asked was What's different now in the industry--what defines children's publishing today?

Here's a little from each panelist:

David Gale: He said publishing now is more complicated and kind of schizophrenic, without rules. The picture book market is still soft. The cost of producing a book is more challenging--tighter P/Ls--it's more difficult to make books earn money on paper when they are trying to get them approved. There's a lot of contradiction, and publishing a book is more of a gamble than ever.

Elizabeth Law: She discussed the fact that a company is always looking for more growth and more cash. And with higher numbers come more pressure.

Dianne Hess: She said marketing is at the forefront of publishing now.

Debra Dorfman: She talked about mass market accounts (Toys'R'Us, Wal-Mart) trying to dictate to them what they should be publishing as well as designs for products and price points.

Brenda Bowen: She said everyone can get their material out there now--as opposed to 10 years ago--via the Internet.

Allyn Johnston: She said, during her days at Harcourt, everything was lumped together in terms of sales. Now, at her new imprint, she feels like there's a spotlight on the outstanding expenses and the pressures on e to sell when their debut list materializes.

Lin Oliver asked if publishers track what's going on online--and they definitely do. They all talked about ways their companies are trying to attract kids to books online, create book projects with interactive elements, finding readers on MySpace, etc. Social networking sites are definitely on publishers' radar it seems.

According to the website ReadingSuccessLab.com, Government statistics show 25 million Americans are functionally illiterate. The primary cause is dyslexia or one of its many variants.

Through their children’s book series, Hank Zipzer: The World’s Greatest Underachiever, co-authors Lin Oliver and Henry Winkler share the struggles and triumphs of a resourceful elementary school student as he deals with the challenges that come with dyslexia. The stories are based on Henry Winkler’s own experiences with the disorder.

On this edition of Just One More Book, Mark speaks with actor, director, producer and author, Henry Winkler about becoming an author and his relationship with Hank Zipzer, his struggles with reading and learning, and what we can do to help our children.

Links to Hank Zipzer books:

• Chapters.ca
• Amazon.com

This is episode 300 of Just One More Book!!

UPDATE: Click here to see the transcript of this interview.

Photo: American Library Association