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Those Charlesbridge folks must have been pretty busy last week. Not only did the advance copy of my book arrive at Casa Bayrock, but fellow Charlesbridge author Chris Barton received the final layouts for his upcoming picture book, The Day-Glo Brothers [Fall 2009]. Congrats, Chris!

Check out those eye-poppin' Day-Glo colours on the cover and then head over to Chris' blog where he's posted a pic of one of the spreads. Cool stuff.

I'm looking forward to finding this one at the book store!
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Another book to add to the "Thinking Outside the Box" List**



Quack!
by Arthur Yorinks
Illustrated by
Adrienne Yorinks
Harry N. Abrams, 2003
Category: Young Picture Book


Quack! is the simple story of little duck who builds a rocket to the moon, but when he gets there discovers he misses his friends, so parachutes back to Earth. A cute story, to be sure, but the genius of this book is revealed in the teeny yellow printing in the lower left corner of the cover, which claims this book is:

Written in the International Language of Ducks!

...and it IS! [giggle giggle] The text is made up almost entirely of the word "quack", with just a few other words thrown in. The words on the page are various sizes, bolded and not, and move around in ways that give clues as to how they should be read. I'm sure a three-year-old nonreader could "read" this book according to what the quacks on the page look like. For example, on one page a series of quacks grows from teeny tiny font to in-your-face bold font. The reader *knows* to start the series in a tiny soft voice and escalate to excited shouting by the end.

It's hilariously brilliant. Fresh, clever marriage of words and format. Definitely on the "Thinking Outside the Box" List. The rest of the list is here.
**Books that break expectations in delightful ways to wow me with their cleverness. Usually ingenious format causes this step out of the norm, but it could also be an oh-so-perfect-whoda-thunk of that treatment involving approach, style, voice, or some other facet. These books aren't just great books, they're blazing new trails.
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Every once in a very long while, a book comes along that breaks expectations in delightful ways to wow me with its cleverness. Usually ingenious format causes this step out of the norm, but it could also be an oh-so-perfect-whoda-thunk-of-that treatment involving approach, style, voice, or some other facet. These books aren't just great books, they're standouts blazing new trails.

I've been informally collecting "Thinking Outside the Box" titles for some time now, and would like to formalize the list by recognizing these books from time to time and putting them together in one place. Often "Thinking Outside the Box" books have slipped under the media radar, so I hope by creating this list, they'll get more of the attention they deserve. I'll update this blog entry with each new book I talk about---which should result in a linkable list over time---and will link each new entry back to this one as a kind of index.

If you've come across a children's book that's a great example of thinking outside the box, I'd love to hear from you. Send me an email at fionabayrock#gmail.com (replace # with @). Please put "Thinking Outside the Box" in the subject header so my spam filter doesn't eat it up. I'll add suggested books that I think are significantly different and outstandingly clever. Yup, it's my quirky list, I get final say. ;^)

Check back on Monday, July 7, when Nonfiction Monday will ring in the first "Thinking Outside the Box" book.
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Bugs Up Close
by Diane Swanson
Photographs by Paul Davidson
Kids Can Press, 2007

Category: Nonfiction Picture Book


Here in Canada, Diane Swanson is somewhat of an icon in children's nonfiction. We've never met, but I'm a big fan and longtime admirer. Known for her clear, engaging, conversational style, she delivers here in spades, covering everything 'buggy' from eyes and spiracles to reproduction and defense.

Each spread is illustrated in glorious oversized macro-photography. Open Bugs Up Close to any page and you will, indeed, be up close with a bug of some kind. How does a 12-inch katydid or a 9-inch grasshopper grab you? I guarantee you won't get to the end of this book without uttering a few "Wow"s sparked by Davidson's crisp images.

The design of this book is brilliant. Many children's science books are compartmentalized into bite-size blurbs in boxes, starbursts, and tiny sections. I'm so pleased the book designers didn't do that here, instead opting for a simple clean design. The images are so spectacular, you don't need to dish things out in small servings to keep the reader's attention. Text, images, design -- all in tune.

When I was a child, photo-illustration was my favourite. Real images of real things in real places tapped a truth and invoked a fascination about the world that drawings and paintings couldn't quite muster. This is a book the nine-year-old me would have lovingly dog-eared in no time. And, well, actually, those corners are already starting to look a little bendy. Old habits die hard.

Bugs Up Close was nominated in the Nonfiction Picture Book category of the Cybils Award.

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Today, I'd like to welcome Loree Griffin Burns, author of Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam,
and the Science of Ocean Motion
(Houghton Mifflin, 2007 - middle grade nonfiction ).

Tracking Trash chronicles the work of scientists who study ocean currents by following cargo -- everything from rubber ducks and basketballs to computers and sneakers -- that has fallen off container ships. The book then looks at how this science is being used to help preserve and protect ocean habitats.

Loree and I met in an online group of children's nonfiction writers shortly after she'd received the contract offer for Tracking Trash. Since then we've "talked" many times via email and shared many cups of cyber tea. We came "this close" to meeting in person during one of her research trips to the left coast (next time, for sure!) Loree is a smart cookie, a fabulous writer, and simply one of the nicest people you could ever meet. It's been a pleasure to follow her journey to publication, and to share the excitement of her successes. I'm so pleased she's here today to tell us more about it all.

FIONA: So, Loree, Tracking Trash was released to wide critical acclaim. It received a constellation of starred reviews, and went into a second printing within a couple of months of first hitting book store shelves. It has been recognized by prestigious awards, including the Orbis Pictus, Boston Globe-Horn Book, Suburu SB&F, and Cybils awards. Whew! By all accounts, girl, this book is a success. When did you know it? What was it that made you say, "Yes! It's a success!"?

LOREE: That's a tough question. There was a moment when I knew I had gotten the book to a place I was happy with, that it was Finished. That was a nice moment. But a "Yes! It's a success!" moment? Not really. Just a string of amazing "OH MY GOD!" moments ... each of which I am extremely grateful for.

Oh, please share the string of OMG moments! What were they and why did they make you say OMG?

This feels dangerously like tooting my own horn, Fiona. And I have never been comfortable with that. Tell your readers to skip ahead if they want.

So, dear readers, consider yourselves told. :^) But I hope you won't skip ahead, because what comes next is Loree sharing her genuine joy and delight -- no tooting of her horn here, I'm sure you'll agree.

Loree's OMG moments:

--- First printed review arrives, from VOYA, and it is very, very good. OMG!

--- First starred review arrives, from School Library Journal. It's good, too. OMG!

--- I get an email from Sally Walker. Sally -- Secrets of a Civil War Submarine -- Walker! She tells me she read Tracking Trash, found it "totally fascinating", and is adding it to her spring book talk lists. OMG! Sally's books have meant so much to me ... Fossil Fish Found Alive is the very book that inspired me to try my hand at writing about science for a young audience. It was so kind of her to take the time and send that email, and finding it in my inbox remains one of my favorite OMG! moments of all time.

--- My high school biology teacher -- a man who inspired me in so many ways and to whom I dedicated Tracking Trash -- surprises me by coming to my release party. Seeing him for the first time in twenty years was incredible, acknowledging him and all that his teaching has meant to me in such a public forum was a gift.

--- My editor, Erica Zappy, calls to tell me Tracking Trash was named a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book. I played it very cool on the phone with Erica, but there was a lot of OMG-ing when I hung up! Then I realize I will have to give an acceptance speech. Live.

--- Favorable review in the The LA Times and, shortly after, in The NY Times Book Review.

I've had more OMG! moments than I probably deserve. But I never grow tired of them and I try very hard not to take them for granted.

Let's talk a bit about process. I know a book like this takes a tremendous amount of planning. I also read on your website that some parts of the process were "organic". I'd love to hear how the planned vs. organic balance shifted at various points along the way.

There was a point when the book was ostensibly done, but not finished: I had told Curt and Jim's story, and Charlie's story, and well, then the book just sort of ended. It was not a satisfying conclusion and, worse still, I didn't know how to fix it. While I was struggling with what to do about this, I got a call from a friend. He had heard an NPR piece about scientists collecting net debris in Hawaii and wanted to be sure I had heard it too. I was too worried about my bad ending to be listening to the radio (!) and hadn't heard the story. But I quickly found the report online, learned about the work of ghost net hunters Jim Churnside, Tim Veenstra, and Mary Donohue, and began to envision a new ending.

Several weeks later I interviewed Jim Churnside by phone and asked him how he and his colleagues knew where to look for the ghost nets. His answer gave me goosebumps: "Our first step was to talk to Jim Ingraham about where in the North Pacific Ocean we should look for the ghost nets." These trash trackers -- people I knew nothing about when I started writing the book -- were using computer programs perfected with Curt's tub toy data to find their ghost nets. The story had come full circle ... and I had no idea in the beginning that it would.

I am anal by nature, and so had the writing meticulously planned: proposal, check; interviews, check; drafting of chapters, check; collection of photographs, check; meeting deadline, check. But I found that each step caused me to reexamine the step before.

Did these organic shifts affect the overall shape of the book? If so, how?

During my first sit-down interview with Curt [Ebbesmeyer - oceanographer] he told me that up to 10,000 cargo-laden containers fell into the ocean each year. That translates into a lot of floating garbage. This got me thinking about his work in an entirely new way. My thinking moved away from the oceanographically important aspects of tracking trash (learning about how currents move) and toward the darker side of the story: what happens to all that trash? The book I had planned -- a book about an interesting man practicing quirky science -- grew into a book about several interesting men and women trying to protect the ocean and everything in it.

Will this change the way you approach your next books?

The lesson I've taken from this is to loosen up, to let go my stranglehold on "process" and allow myself to meander as I research and even as I write. Sometimes the next step simply isn't ready when I want it to be. And so I wait, live, wander, talk to my radio-listening friends. Eventually, things sync and I get there.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Tracking Trash. Please share a bit about what writing it was like. What part of creating this book was. . .

. . . most exciting?
The entire thing ... all of it was new and thrilling.

. . . most frustrating?
There was a period of time when I struggled with how to pull the book together. I had submitted a first draft and it was good, but not good enough. I felt (and my editor agreed) that the book was missing something. But I didn't know what. Blech.

. . . most gratifying?
Before I worried about readers and reviewers, I worried about how Curt Ebbesmeyer would like the book. I had spent two years corresponding with Curt, interviewing him, getting to know him and his work and his passion for understanding and protecting the ocean. Handing him a copy of Tracking Trash, watching him read it, and seeing him smile in approval was very, very gratifying.

. . . most fun?
1. Visiting John Anderson's house. He's a beachcomber in Forks, Washington, and his collection of beachcombed debris is astounding.
2. Collecting water samples on the Pacific with Charlie Moore. We were in sight of land the whole time, which was just fine by me.

You live with three young kids. What do they think about all this author business?

The day the first hardcover copies arrived, my kids were more relieved than excited. I had been talking about it for so long that they had started to think my book was simply a ploy for alone time. As in: "My mom's up in her office ... working on her book." You have to imagine their little hands making air quotation marks around the word "book" to get the full effect.

During a visit to the Worcester Public Library we passed a huge Tracking Trash display at the entrance to the Children's Room. My kids walked right by, unfazed. "Uh, guys? Did you notice anything over here in the doorway?" They remained UNIMPRESSED. Bored even. Instant grounding. :^)

All in all, they are tremendously patient with me and how much of myself is now put into things besides them.

So, what's next, Loree? I know you've got some cool projects in the works. Anything you'd like to tell us about them?

I am working on a new "Scientists in the Field" book about the dream team of scientists working to understand the baffling disappearance of our managed honey bee populations. That book is called The Hive Detectives (for now) and is scheduled for publication in Spring 2010. I've also written a picture book biography of French entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre that I am terribly excited about. More on that one soon. . .

Thanks, Loree, for giving us this terrific peek into your process and writerly life.

Please visit Loree Griffin Burns at her website and blog where she tells the behind-the-scenes story of her Tracking Trash journey. And if you haven't read Tracking Trash yet, do. It's a fascinating read, clearly written in Loree's engaging style and beautifully ilustrated with fresh photos by Betty Jenewin (who also deserves credit for Loree's author shot above).
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Now that our shortlist has been officially announced on the Cybils blog, I can talk about it here, too. I'll be posting about the process in later posts, but for now, here are the books my fellow panelists (see my last post for who they are!) and I picked for the 2007 Cybils Nonfiction Picture Book shortlist
(in no particular order):

1) Lightship

AUTHOR &
ILLUSTRATOR: Brian Floca
Richard Jackson Books/Atheneum

The fog seems to waft off the page in this delightful look at the work and life aboard the lightship Ambrose -- a floating lighthouse anchored offshore. The writing is rich and engaging without talking down, and humour permeates both text and illustration. Floca's detailed watercolour illustrations and deceptively simple text sprinkled with sensory language have readers practically feeling the dampness, tasting the sea air, and tilting with the deck.


2) Vulture View

AUTHOR: April Pulley Sayre
ILLUSTRATOR: Steve Jenkins
Henry Holt

Simple conversational rhyme and Jenkins' signature cut paper illustrations provide a lovely early introduction to vultures -- fascinating creatures that don't usually get their own book. The bold palette and interesting, sometimes eerie perspective are a perfect complement to Sayre's kid-friendly text, the rhythm of which cleverly reflects the birds' daily rhythm. Precise meter and rhyme, and the inclusion of some repetition make this a great interactive readaloud.


3) Let's Go! The Story of Getting from There to Here

AUTHOR: Lizann Flatt
ILLUSTRATOR: Scot Ritchie
Maple Tree Press

Distilling thousands of years of tranportation history into a picture book for a young audience is a tall order, but Flatt and Ritchie pull it off brilliantly. Fresh word choices -- those unexpected verbs are a treat! -- and rhyme so subtle, as though folded into the shadows, contribute to Flatt's lovely lyrical style. The fun, kid-friendly illustrations are abuzz with activity, and the text wends across each page to echo the transportation theme.


4) Where in the Wild? Camouflaged Creatures Concealed...and Revealed

AUTHORS:
David M. Schwartz
& Yael Schy
PHOTOS: Dwight Kuhn
Tricycle Press

A refreshing selection of ten camouflaged animals beautifully photographed are presented as a "find-the-critter" challenge. Snappy titles and delicious poems cleverly hint at the animals' identities (form and meter match each animal! Yowsa!) , and fold-out pages reveal the animals and cool information about them. Clearly written in a kid-friendly conversational style.


5) Guess What Is Growing Inside This Egg

AUTHOR &
ILLUSTRATOR: Mia Posada
Millbrook Press

Posada's charming cut paper and painted illustrations zero in on the eggs of six different animals, her interesting angles and close-up views providing hints at which animals laid them. Rhyming couplets add more clues as readers are encouraged to "Guess what is growing inside this egg." Answers and more information about the animal appear on the following page. Backmatter includes a spread with all of the eggs drawn to scale, and another showing what happens inside a developing duck egg. A great egg readaloud.


6) One Thousand Tracings - Healing the Wounds of World War II

AUTHOR &
ILLUSTRATOR: Lita Judge
Hyperion

First person point of view (Judge's mother as a child) makes it easy for young readers to connect with this beautifully written and illustrated story of kindness and hope from a difficult time in history. After discovering hundreds of foot tracings and letters in her grandmother's attic, Judge learned of her mother's and grandmother's efforts to supply much needed shoes, clothing, food, and other supplies to Europeans left homeless and starving after WWII. An amazing story, told well. Good as a readaloud, but with brief text and easy language, it is also accessible to young independent readers.


7) Living Color

AUTHOR &
ILLUSTRATOR: Steve Jenkins
Houghton Mifflin

A rainbow of familiar and exotic animals in gorgeous cut and painted paper pops from the page in this fresh approach to looking at animal coloration. Each animal, sorted according to colour, is accompanied by a short paragraph of supporting information subtitled with plenty of humour. Jenkins isn't afraid to have animals straddle spreads when colours overlap (cool!). Excellent for non-linear readers who prefer to browse and read smorgasbord-style -- a feast.

Congratulations to all of the authors, illustrators, editors, art directors etc., who created these gems. Now it's up to the judging panel to choose a winner from among them. It ain't gonna be easy, I tell ya.

And if you'd like to hear fellow panelist Tricia and I talk a bit about the process, head on over to Just One More Book!! where Andrea and Mark have posted a podcast interview. Anyone want to give me a nickel for every time I said "Uh..."? I figure that should finance at least one mocha cappucino at the local coffee bistro. With extra foam. And chocolate shavings. And sprinkles.

Links to all of the shortlists:

• Nonfiction Picture Books
• Fiction Picture Books
• MG/YA Nonfiction
• Middle Grade Novels
• Young Adult Novels
• Poetry
• Fantasy/Science Fiction
• Graphic Novels

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Librarians are hip and with-it and enjoy Dewey Decimal drinking games!

The NYTimes reports on the social group "Desk Set" in their "Fashion and Style" section today.