Calling all young publishing professionals (sorry, Early Career Committee events are for employees of CBC member houses only) -
Join us for the 1st Annual Hunger Pub Games! See below for the event invite I created… and RSVP to see in person all the challenges that await. It’s going to be a ton of fighting- I mean, fun!
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children's book council,
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the hunger games 
It’s finally time to resurrect my blog from its long hiatus! I’ve actually missed being on Walking In Public… digging up blog content has always kept me engaged with the publishing/art/design industries, and it motivates me to write and draw regularly. So, I’ll be back on the blog for a long while, with all-new features and updates on my journey to success in the children’s book world!
What have you missed while I’ve been away from the blog? Here are the best things that happened, circa 2011:
Annie’s Top 5 2011 Professional Developments
1. Illustrated and designed the Little Farmer app.
You may remember that I began a project working on a toddler game app, called Little Farmer, back in May. Well, after months of illustrating, designing and developing, we released it for sale in the iTunes store in October! It has been a really wonderful experience working with a talented developer, Anita Hirth, to create artwork that children can interact with, right there on any iPhone. There’s much more to say about the process of creating an app, and my future in the digital world… but those are subjects for bigger posts!
In the meantime, purchase the app here, or watch the video trailer, above!
2. Joined the Children’s Book Council’s Early Career Committee.
I’ve been attending events for young adults in the publishing industry for awhile, so it was exciting to be asked to represent Penguin Young Readers (and designers everywhere) on the Children’s Book Council’s Early Career Committee. This organization creates opportunities for those in the first 5 years of the children’s book industry to network, learn, and become more involved in their fields… so their mission is right up my alley! Since becoming a part of the team this summer, I’ve had a TON of fun making great friends with 20-somethings in different houses, through planning creative programming. I’m also having a blast designing fliers, making good use of my design time and talents.
If you haven’t already, make sure to catch up on the CBC and ECC’s fabulous social media enterprises – Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest!
I was saddened to learn of the death of children’s author Georgess McHargue on Monday, July 18th. It seems that this was a death our community missed and I am sorry for it. Ms. McHargue penned many a fine children’s novel, but my favorite would have to be Stoneflight, a tale of New York City’s statuary come to life. According to her obituary, “After working at Golden Press, Georgess became an editor at Doubleday. In her long career as an author, she published 35 books, many are for young adults, some focused on archaeology, mythology and history. She was nominated for a National Book Award for The Beasts of Never, and wrote many reviews over the years for the NY Times Book Review.” Jane Yolen was a friend of hers and alerted me to her passing. Thank you, Jane, for letting us know. She was a brilliant writer.
- Diane Roback, now I doff my hat to you. The recent PW article on Colorful Characters is a boon to the industry. I dare say it’s brilliant. One does wonder how Walter Mayes, who is not old, feels about being included amongst the dead and elderly. I hope he enjoys it! Being known as a “colorful character” will keep folks talking about you (and writing about you) for decades to come.
- That’s cool. Zetta Elliott had a chance to interview and profile Jacqueline Woodson in Ms. Magazine’s blog recently. Good title too: Writing Children’s Books While Black and Feminist. The part where she’s asked to name “five other black LGBTQ authors of children’s literature” is telling. I don’t know that I could either.
- Living as we do in an essentially disposable society, Dan Blank’s piece on Preserving Your Legacy: Backing Up Your Digital Media makes for necessary reading. As someone who has lost countless photos and files through my own negligence, this piece rings true to me. Particularly the part where Dan says he makes sure that “Once a day, I backup my photo library onto an external hard drive.” Anthony Horowitz once told me the same thing. How’s THAT for name dropping, eh eh?
- Jobs! Jobs in the publishing industry! Jobs I say!
- And much along the same lines, were you aware that there’s a group out there made up entirely of youngsters who are entering the publishing industry? At 33 I reserve the right to call twenty-somethings “youngsters”. I am also allowed to shake my cane at them and use phrases like “whippersnappers” and “hooligans”. But I digress. The Children’s Book Council has an Early Career Committee
Quick correction: Georgess McHargue got her NBA nomination for THE IMPOSSIBLE PEOPLE, not THE BEASTS OF NEVER.
Wow. Now that I know I was being manipulated by a “band of hippie hammer-lovers” or imperialist loving trains I don’t think I’ll look back on my son’s early childhood the same again. Although honestly, he just loved the trains and talking construction vehicles. Is that sooooo bad???
Good catch, Peter! And bad show, oh obituary writer.
Colleen, I think you’re in the clear. Unless you son starts colonizing other kids’ sandboxes “for their own good”. Then at least you know who to blame.
I am absolutely thrilled to be a Colorful Character and honored to be among such greats!
Love the Children’s Book Council Harry Potter link! I am totally going to name a local trivia team That’s So Ravenclaw, if the originators wouldn’t mind.
(And as I’m headed to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios this weekend, I’ll look for a chance to use the phrase.)
Love the minimalist posters, especially the ones for The Princess and the Pea and The Wizard of Oz (though it was missing ‘home’). Thanks for the link.
Is that Spinelli cover supposed to be about a boy and his older triplet brothers? Or did the illustrator have only the one model and not enough imagination to change somebody’s hair color?
Thanks so much for mentioning my post. I’m thrilled! And that cover is obviously a young Henry Winkler, dreaming of being the Fonz.
Elliott posted the full and unedited interview with Woodson in two parts on her blog. Its a must read if you like the profile in Ms. Magazine
Speaking of youngsters to publishing, the AAP has been sponsoring the Young to Publishing Group for 10 years now! I really enjoyed it when I was a newly minted editorial assistant in New York in the early 2000s and hopefully it’s still helpful for other newbies. Check it out at: http://youngtopublishing.com/
You might appreciate today’s drawing lesson on how to draw bunnies: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2011/aug/02/how-to-draw-bunnies-simone-lia
(and note that Simone Lia, as well as Oliver Jeffers in his post (Same series) on how to draw penguins…. both compare various appendages to sausages). Ah, the UK. Not sure our american illustrators would use the same analogy.