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Ame Dyckman’s newest book, “Tea Party Rules,” illustrated by K.G. Campbell, was selected as the winner of the 28th annual Ezra Jack Keats Book Award.

The award is presented to a new writer and new illustrator each year, and Dyckman will be on hand at the 2014 awards ceremony set for April 10, during the Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.

Dyckman will receive a gold medallion as well as an honorarium of $1,000 at the ceremony. Kathi Appelt, award-winning author of numerous books for children and young adults, will be a guest presenter.

Dyckman said it is an honor to be selected for the award, which includes a prestigious seal on the sleeve of her book. She said she is a fan of Keats’ most famous work, “The Snowy Day.”

“We’re over the moon,” she said of her team, which includes Campbell and her publishing team at Viking Children’s Books. “I’m honored, thrilled and astounded.”

“Tea Party Rules,” Dyckman’s second book, follows the adventures of a bear attending a tea party. But before he can participate, the hostess lays down the rules. The two become friends and learn about how to compromise and enjoy playtime together.

That book, along with her first published work, “Boy + Bot,” illustrated by Dan Yaccarino, earned sterling reviews on Amazon and from book critics. “Tea Party Rules” also was selected by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library as a book that will be distributed to children in need.

You can read the full article that was written by Michele Angermiller for The Times by clicking this sentence.

The news is finally out:

THE TRUTH ABOUT TWINKIE PIE by Kat Yeh has been selected as a Buzz Book at Book Expo America this year! Kat is quite excited and I am excited for her debut middle grade novel.

T.S. Ferguson, Associate Editor at Harlequin Teen is super excited because one of his books, Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley made the YA Buzz Books List. Because of that he gets to sit on a panel with four other editors , including Alvina Ling and talk about it to a packed crowd of book buyers, librarians, and other industry professionals. He says, “I’m SO excited that this amazing book is getting attention, and so excited that I get to be the one to talk about it.” It is the first time a Harlequin TEEN book has been selected!

Here are the Buzz Books that made the list:

YOUNG ADULT (YA) EDITORS BUZZ ‘14 BEA YA

Editors Buzz Thursday, May 29 10:00am – 10:50am Room 1E10/1E11

BEA Editors Buzz YA Books – Author Stage Friday, May 30 10:00am – 10:30am Uptown Stage

Lies We Tell Ourselves
by Robin Talley
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: 9/30/14

The Jewel
by Amy Ewing
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: 9/2/14

The Walled City
by Ryan Graudin
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: 11/4/14

I’m Glad I Did
by Cynthia Weil
Publisher: Soho Teen
Publication Date: 1/27/15

King Dork Approximately
by Frank Portman
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: 9/9/14

MIDDLE GRADE EDITORS BUZZ ‘14

BEA Middle Grade Editors Buzz
Friday, May 30
11:00am – 11:50am
Room 1E12/1E13

BEA Editors Buzz Middle Grade Books – Author Stage
Friday, May 30
1:00pm – 1:30pm
Uptown Stage

The Truth About Twinkle Pie
by Kat Yeh
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: 1/27/15

Zoo at the Edge of the World
by Eric Kahn Gale
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: 8/26/14

Pennyroyal Academy
by M.A. Larson
Publisher: Putnam Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: 10/7/14

The Witch’s Boy
by Kelly Barnhill
Publisher: Algonquin Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: 9/16/14

Life of Zarf
by Rob Harrell
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: 8/28/14

PROMOTIONS: 

In December Phaidon, a publisher best known for its lavishly produced art books, has hired Judith Regan as the CEO of a new division at the company called Regan Arts. Phaidon said the division will include a book imprint, but will also function as a “multimedia enterprise.” Now Ron Hogan has joined Judith Regan’s new company Regan Arts as an editor, acquiring both fiction and non-fiction.

Grand Central Publishing (part of the Hachette Book Group) promoted Emily Griffin, Michele Bidelspach, and Alex Logan to senior editors. Megha Parekh has been promoted to associate editor, while Libby Burton and Lindsey Rose move up to assistant editor.

Reka Simonsen will join Atheneum as executive editor, effective March 10. Previously she was executive editor at HMH Children’s.

Sarah Shumway will join Bloomsbury Children’s Books as senior editor on March 3. Previously she was senior editor at Harper Children’s Katherine Tegen Books imprint.

Cara Bedick has joined Harlequin as senior editor, Harlequin Nonfiction.

Caitlin Kirkpatrick has been promoted to assistant editor at Chronicle.

Consortium will distribute Blue Apple Books, the Maplewood, NJ-based children’s book publisher, as of June 1, 2014.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Sarah Davies at the Greenhouse Literary Agency sold Author Kat Yeh’s debut book THE TRUTH ABOUT TWINKIE PIE, pitched in the vein of SHUG and THREE TIMES LUCKY, about a girl who moves to a new town and tries to leave her past and her name behind, only to learn life-changing secrets about her family, to Alvina Ling at Little, Brown Children’s, at auction, in a two-book deal, for publication in Fall 2014.

Congraulations! Yay! Kudos!  

Kat and Sarah!

Egmont USA has hired literary agent Andrea Cascardi from the Transatlantic Literary Agency for the new combined role of managing director and publisher, effective immediately. Prior to joining TLA, she was associate publishing director at Random House Children’s for the Knopf and Crown imprints. Current publisher Elizabeth Law is leaving after five years with the company.

Fiona Kenshole has joined Transatlantic Literary Agency, where she will represent children’s authors and illustrators. Previously she was vp, development acquisition at animation studio Laika and before then, publishing director for OUP Children’s.

At Harper, Maya Ziv has been promoted to editor. She is looking for literary fiction with commercial appeal with a focus on women’s fiction; dark suspense (with a possible speculative twist); YA crossover; and narrative nonfiction, including memoir.

Film development and publishing veteran Ruth Pomerance will join Hyperion on January 28 as a senior editor, focusing on the acquisition and development of new stories and author talent that will translate across the Disney/ABC Television Group businesses. Most recently she was executive producer for the adaptation of Judy Blume’s Tiger Eyes and a consultant to entertainment firms. Pomerance has worked for producers including Scott Rudin, Arnold Kopelson, Fred Zollo, and John Davis, for whom she acquired and developed literary properties for film and TV, and has worked at The Rockwell Group, USA Films, Artists Management Group, and the William Morris Agency. She is known for coming across the unpublished manuscript of John Grisham’s The Firm in 1990 and helping him land a publishing deal with Doubleday and a film deal at Paramount.

At becker&mayer!, Kjersti Egerdahl has been promoted to senior editor/editorial manager for adult and children’s books.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

by Kat Yeh

I have just finished my second year of PiBoIdMo and I can’t stop thinking about how much I love what I do. I love the blank page that is suddenly no longer blank. I love that for a living, I get to be a picture book author. Because when you write picture books, you get to Make Things Up. You get to take something that never existed in real life and make it real. And if you’re lucky, one day it becomes a book you can hold in your hands.

In 2003, I took a class at Columbia’s Teachers College. Let me clarify. I took an amazing class entirely devoted to the Art of the Picture Book. Taught by Professor Barbara Kiefer, former chair of the Caldecott Committee. The previous years between 1999 and 2003 had been a blur. In a short span of time, my first child was getting ready to go to school, I had a second child, and my father passed away. I had always wanted to write children’s books and had a pretty big stack of manuscripts and scribbled ideas piled up in my office. In the midst of everything that was going on, I somehow decided that it was time to take a chance.

The class was wonderful. We held a Mock Caldecott Award and pitched our personal nominees. We experimented with making hand-bound books. We were given lists of museums and galleries to visit for inspiration. And one day, the list included an exhibition of Chinese Calligraphy.

I went early one morning. I remember how still the rooms were. I remember standing alone before a wall of parchment paper and stunning brushwork and being overwhelmed with memories of my father. How he loved spending time with my daughter. How he shouted with joy when he heard I was pregnant with my son. How along with his many artistic pursuits, he loved working with his brush and ink. That day, I began to write the story of how my father introduced my children to the art of Chinese Calligraphy.

Flash forward 5 years. The kids were a little older. There was a little more breathing room. I now had a somewhat daunting stack of manuscripts and scribbled ideas and I decided it was time to take another chance and actually try to get published.

My first picture book, YOU’RE LOVABLE TO ME (Random House, December, 2009) came out shortly after that. Through the SCBWI, I was introduced to the amazing New Jersey chapter, run by Kathy Temean. One of my first events was a Mentor Workshop with the opportunity to have a manuscript critique. I brushed off my Chinese calligraphy story. Looked at it with fresh eyes and made changes. Then took a deep breath and brought it to my meeting with editor Stacy Cantor from Walker Books.

It was a good meeting.

Stacy teamed me up with illustrator Huy Voun Lee and two years later, THE MAGIC BRUSH: A story of love, family, and Chinese characters (Walker Books, January, 2011) was on the shelves.

I will never forget the first time I sat with my children to read it. How my daughter looked at the pages showing the first Chinese characters my father ever taught her. How my son reached out to touch the opening spread—a beautiful illustration of him and his sister, laughing with my father in a garden. How they listened to the story of that special time they were lucky enough to share with my father.

Time that only ever existed in that book.

Because only few weeks after I had told my father that I was expecting another child, he had a stroke. He lay in a coma when my son was born and never opened his eyes again. He never got the chance to meet my son or teach my dau

The following books, both old and new, are some of my favorite mommy-and-me stories that I know you will enjoy sharing with your little Stinky Face: