A dive into what the editors really love (and acquired!)
Alvina Ling is VP and Editor-in-Chief at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers where she’s worked since 1999. She oversees Little, Brown’s core publishing program (including picture book, middle grade, and young adult), and edits children's books for all ages. She has worked with such authors and illustrators as Peter Brown, Bryan Collier, Ed Young, Grace Lin, Wendy Mass, Justina Chen, Chris Colfer, Laini Taylor, Libba Bray, Barry Lyga, Holly Black, and Matthew Quick. She is the co-founder and former chair of the CBC Diversity Committee. She is on Twitter as @planetalvina.
The books Alvina shares about are:
For Picture Books, "Thunder Boy, Jr." by Sherman Alexie, illustrated by Yuyi Morales
for middle grade, "The Year of the Dog" by Grace Lin
And for YA, "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" by Laini Taylor
Melissa Manlove is an Editor at Chronicle Books in San Francisco. She has been with Chronicle for 12 years. Her acquisitions tend to be all ages in nonfiction; ages 0-8 for fiction. When acquiring, she looks for fresh takes on familiar topics as well as the new and unusual. An effective approach and strong, graceful writing are important to her. She has 17 years of children’s bookselling experience.
Melissa's books she shares with us - and the stories behind them - are:
"Picture This" by Molly Bang
"President Squid" by Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Sara Varon
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By: Lee Wind, M.Ed.,
on 7/29/2016
Blog: The Official SCBWI 10th Annual New York Conference Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: alvina ling, Melissa Manlove, #LA16SCBWI, Add a tag
By: Lee Wind, M.Ed.,
on 7/29/2016
Blog: The Official SCBWI 10th Annual New York Conference Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: alvina ling, Stacey Barney, Reka Simonsen, Emma Dryden, Neal Porter, Melissa Manlove, Sara Sargent, Kat Brzozowski, Matt Ringler, Kate Sulivan, Add a tag
Moderated by Emma Dryden (standing, far left), the panel shares three books that they acquired (and why):
Seated, from Left to Right:
Stacey Barney, Senior Editor (G.P. Putnam's Sons/Penguin)
Kat Brzozowski, Associate Editor (St. Martin's)
Alvina Ling, V.P. and Editor in Chief (Little, Brown)
Melissa Manlove, Editor (Chronicle)
Neal Porter, Publisher (Neal Porter Books)
Matt Ringler, Senior Editor (Scholastic)
Sara Sargent, Executive Edtior (Harper Collins)
Reka Simonsen, Executive Editor (Atheneum)
Kate Sullivan, Senior Editor (Delacorte)
By: Debbie Reese,
on 5/13/2016
Blog: American Indians in Children's Literature (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Sherman Alexie, Thunder Boy Jr., disenrollment, Alvina Ling, Add a tag
As I continue thinking about Sherman Alexie's Thunder Boy Jr., I wonder about the responsibility of the editorial team. Back when A Fine Dessert was published, some people pointed out that the editorial team has responsibilities, too, for the book. Some argued that, in the end, the author and illustrator have final responsibility because their names are on the book. Others countered that they don't have as much authority as one might think.
This post is some of my thoughts on the role of the editor.
Alexie writes primarily for adults. His name, books, and then his films (Smoke Signals and The Business of Fancydancing) were well known in Native circles. When he wrote The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian he became widely known in children's and young adult literature. In one interview, he said that Diary sold over a million copies. He heard from a lot of readers about how much that book mattered to them, and so, he wanted to do something similar for younger readers. Hence: Thunder Boy Jr.
The first print run for Thunder Boy Jr. is 100,000 copies, which is rare for a picture book. The publisher is Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (they also published Diary). Their decision to print 100,000 copies tells us they expect the book to do well. Its status this morning as "#1 Best Seller" in the Children's Native American Books category at Amazon tells us they were right.
As I noted yesterday, Alexie is making a lot of appearances. I assume the publisher is paying for all of that.
Alexie's editor, Alvina Ling, is fully aware of the intense discussions in children's literature regarding the topic of diversity, racism, stereotyping, bias... all of that. She's steeped in the world of children's literature. I think--and I could be wrong--but I think Alvina knows that we're pushing very hard against monolithic images of Native peoples.
Alexie may not know. When he talks about children's books, his go-to title is The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. That's a really old book. I've never seen Alexie speak or write about a children or young adult book about Native peoples written by a Native writer, so I wonder if he's aware of that particular body of literature?
In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, we know which tribal nation his characters are from. Why is that information missing from Thunder Boy Jr.?
Did he think it was too much information to include Thunder Boy's tribal affiliation in the story, somehow?
Was he unable to figure out a way to do it without yanking readers out of the story?
If he was writing with a Native reader in mind, did he think that specificity was unimportant?
If Alexie and his editor talked through all of that, I again end up at the place I was yesterday: an author's note would have been the place to address all of this.
It is possible that Alexie didn't know about author's notes in children's literature, but his author knows all about them and why they're important. Is the lack of one ultimately her error?
There is another framework to situate Alexie's book and choices within... There's a contentious conversation taking place amongst Native people, regarding enrollment or citizenship within a federally recognized tribe. Or--rather--the disenrollment of people who were formerly enrolled in those nations. Some weeks ago there was a hashtag campaign objecting to the disenrollments. You can read about it at Indian Country Today's article, 'Stop Disenrollment' Posts Get More than 100K Views.
Read, too, their story on Alexie's views on disenrollment: Sherman Alexie Gives Disenrollment the Bird. Is the lack of specificity his way of embracing kids whose families are being disenrolled?
No doubt, I'll be back with additional posts on Alexie's book. No book exists in a vacuum. It is in the world, being read by people who are also in the world.
See my first post on his book How to Read Sherman Alexie's Thunder Boy Jr.? uploaded on May 12, 2016.
By: Lee Wind, M.Ed.,
on 2/14/2016
Blog: The Official SCBWI 10th Annual New York Conference Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: alvina ling, #NY16SCBWI, Add a tag
Alvina Ling is Vice President and editor-in-chief at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (where she's worked since 1999.) She oversees Little, Brown's core publishing program (including picture books, middle grade, and young adult), and edits children's books for all ages.
Some highlights of Alvina's comments:
"When we acquire a book, we generally want to acquire an author and an author's career."
On whether there are other considerations besides the manuscript in making the decision, "very occasionally" Alvina will see if the author has an online presence--a website, or are on twitter. But as she explains, it's "not a deciding factor, but can contribute."
About asking for revisions before signing a project, Alvina agrees that it's more suggestive than proscriptive, and she recalls working with Peter Brown for a year before signing his first book.
The panel also covers joint versus separate accounting, how auctions work, and important "gets" in the negotiation process and the pros and cons of working with younger versus more senior editors.
Final Alvina wisdom from the panel:
"Since today is Valentines' day, you have to love what you do. We're all up here because we love what we do... love your work, love meeting the people."
It's great advice.
By: Lee Wind, M.Ed.,
on 2/14/2016
Blog: The Official SCBWI 10th Annual New York Conference Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Elizabeth Bicknell, alvina ling, Sarah Davies, Rubin Pfeffer, Alessandra Balzer, Ginger Clark, #NY16SCBWI, Add a tag
From left to right, Rubin Pfeffer (Agent, Content, standing at podium), Alvina Ling (VP and Editor-in-Chief, Little Brown Books for Young Readers), Sarah Davies (Agent, Greenhouse Literary), Ginger Clark (Agent, Curtis Brown), Liz Bicknell (EVP, Executive Editorial Director & Associate Publisher, Candlewick Press), Alessandra Balzer (VP and Co-Publisher, Balzer + Bray/Harper Collins.)
By: Maryann Yin,
on 6/26/2015
Blog: Galley Cat (Mediabistro) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Charlotte Sheedy, Bethany Strout, Nancy Stauffer, Alvina Ling, Authors, Publishing, Sherman Alexie, Megan Tingley, Add a tag
National Book Award-winning author Sherman Alexie plans to write this debut picture book, Thunder Boy Jr. Artist Yuyi Morales created the illustrations for this project.
Publisher Megan Tingley negotiated this deal with literary agents Nancy Stauffer and Charlotte Sheedy. Editor in chief Alvina Ling and associate editor Bethany Strout worked on editing the manuscript together. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers will release this book on May 03, 2016.
Here’s more from the press release: “Thunder Boy Jr. tells the story of a little boy who is named after his dad. But Thunder Boy Jr. doesn’t want to share a name; he wants a name that is all his own, and he goes through many possibilities—Not Afraid of Ten Thousand Teeth? Touch the Clouds? Old Toys Are Awesome? Just when all hope is lost, his dad helps him find the perfect name, one that celebrates the love between father and son.”
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By: Maryann Yin,
on 11/25/2014
Blog: Galley Cat (Mediabistro) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Children's Books, Celebrities, Alvina Ling, Deals, Chris Colfer, Add a tag
Glee star Chris Colfer has landed a deal with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for several new projects. Editorial director Alvina Ling will continue to work with Colfer on his manuscripts.
According to The Associated Press, Colfer plans to write two more installments for the Land of Stories middle grade series. Book four will come out in July 2015 and book five will follow in July 2016.
Colfer has also agreed to create two picture books set in the Land of Stories universe. He will also be working on a new young adult novel that stars “a young actor and his fans on ‘a once-in-a-lifetime cross-country road trip.’”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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By: Linda S. Wingerter,
on 10/27/2013
Blog: Blue Rose Girls (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: author, illustrator, children's books, alvina ling, college, Grace Lin, childhood, letters, Add a tag
I've been a very bad blogger this year, mainly because of this, of course. But G's treatments are now done, and we're working toward getting our life back to our "new normal." But first, we're moving apartments this week and packing is exhausting!
As always happens, while packing I've been finding forgotten things, like this letter Grace had sent me back when we were both seniors in high school. I had brought this with me from my parents' house in California a while back because I wanted to quote some of the letter in a talk I was giving, I think.
In it, we talked about boys, of course. I had asked her to send me a boyfriend, so she sent me this guy:
Cute, huh? She named him Roger.
And here are a few snippets from the letter:
"I'm going to illustrate children's books, y'know. That would be so cool. One day when we're all grown up, you'll see in a book store: Illustrated by Grace P. Lin. That would be excellent."
and:
"I wish I could show you my portfolio. Then you could tell me if you think I'm talented. Or then you could lie to me and tell me you think I'm the bestest artist in the world and of course I will make it into RISD."
I wonder if Grace has the letter I wrote back to her. But I'm sure I said something like:
I think you're talented, Grace! You are the bestest artist in the world, you will make it into RISD, and you will become a famous children's book author and illustrator.
See, I can predict the future!
By: Linda S. Wingerter,
on 1/21/2013
Blog: Blue Rose Girls (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: drawing lines between work and life, ALA, alvina ling, resolutions, organization, workload, work/life balance, epiphany, Add a tag
At the end of 2012, I talked about burn out. Well, I started this year feeling re-energized (although very busy, still!), and part of the reason for my reinvigoration was that I had a small epiphany. (I may actually have had this epiphany on epiphany...)
What I realized is that during my busiest work times, when I'm feeling overwhelmed by everything I have to do, what I always wish for is the ability to stop time. (You know, like Evie from Out of This World!) What I don't wish is to be able to just sweep the work off my desk. This served as a reminder to me of how much I love my work, every part of it. (well, almost.) I actually want to do all the work. Of course, this hasn't taken away the fact that I don't always have time to do it all as quickly as I would like, but it did help me put things in perspective.
As with many (most?) of us, work-life balance is an on-going issue, and probably will be for most of my life. I don't have the solution, but in addition to some of my new year's resolutions (which are more about making boundaries between work and life, not how to handle workload), I do have some strategies to tackle workload issues this year.
I recently attended a management training that evaluated my personality in terms of leadership. One of the many insights I gained was into how I deal with high-pressure situations. During busy, high-stress times, there is one part of my personality that tends to gets disorganized, and another side of my personality that tries to do even more, take more onto my plate. Not a great combination, and I have to say, very true to my nature.
I've already known this about myself, but it was a good reminder. So I need to get back into the habit of saying "no" more, or at the very least, not volunteering up my time so easily. And I need to stay more organized--I have a few newish tools that I'm trying out, including workflowy.com, which was introduced to me by an agent.
We'll see how it goes!
Regardless, I know it's going to be a great year.
***
I'm heading to Seattle for ALA Midwinter on Friday. If you'll be there, come by the Little, Brown booth to say hi! I'll also be speaking on a CBC Diversity panel on Sunday, January 27, from 3-4. Hope you can make it!
By: Candy Gourlay,
on 5/30/2012
Blog: Notes from the Slushpile (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Sarah Odedina, Hot Key Books, commissioning editor, Alvina Ling, editors, Little Brown, Add a tag
By Candy Gourlay Your intrepid Notes from the Slushpile reporter managed to get herself invited to speak at the Asian Festival of Children’s Content – which was a combination of children’s literary festival, book fair, and a SCBWI Conference. This is the first of hopefully several exhausted ... er ... exhaustive reports. With many thanks to the amazing organizers of an amazing Festival – and
By: Martha Brockenbrough,
on 1/28/2012
Blog: The Official SCBWI 10th Annual New York Conference Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: editor, alvina ling, Little Brown, Add a tag
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| Alvina Ling, talking about narrative fiction. |
The lovely Alvina Ling is editorial director at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. She edits everything from picture books to YA, along with some nonfiction, and is no doubt the person who discovered many of your favorite titles.
Did you love YOU WILL BE MY FRIEND by Peter Brown, and SHARK VS. Train by Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld? Her books. Same for the transcendent WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON by Grace Lin, the powerful NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL by Justina Chen, and the utterly dazzling DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE by Laini Taylor.
She blogs with a group at Blue Rose Girls and is on Twitter (@planetalvina).
She loves genre fiction of all kinds: open to fantasy, mystery and romance. But she requires a certain literary quality to the work. "Literary fiction is my love."
She talked with us about narrative fiction, focusing on three big elements: the narrative voice, the structure, and the plot, and starting with a great quote from W. Somerset Maugham: "There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."
Narrative voice is intertwined with character, Alvina says. One of the things a writer needs to decide: Who is my narrator going to be? A character? An omniscient observer? A main character? A sideline character? Multiple perspectives? A third-person limited? (Her list was quite thorough.)
"There are a lot of decisions you have to make," she says, and sometimes, the choices can be unexpected. For example: PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ by A.S. King was written from the point of view of a pagoda, Alvina said.
Sometimes, "When you're reading a first-person point of view character, you generally know the character isn't going to die. Unless the book is titled 'BEFORE I DIE.'"
She read from a number of books, showing how a choice like POV can be used to add suspense, relate-ability and other things to our stories--it was a fascinating exercise.
Structure, meanwhile, can sometimes be influenced by voice. It can be influenced by the characters you use and the perspectives your story is told from. It can also be arranged around a series of letters, objects, illustrations, or artifacts (like a Twitter feed).
She asked her authors what they started with when it came to structure. One author started with the last sentence. She also likes the structure of THE BOOK THIEF, which reveals one character would later die. This, for her, increased the tension and obscured the possibility of other deaths, which really worked for her.
Plot: Here, the most important thing is to have a conflict. Only one conflict is not enough--unless you're writing a very simple picture book.
"Don't be afraid to put your characters in peril. You need to fear for those characters and not know if they're going to be OK," Alvina says.
She comes up with a pithy sentence that explains what the book is about. It can sometimes be hard to summarize books this way. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO and DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE are two successful books that defy such brief summarization, but in general, it's useful to have that elevator pitch.
By: Kathy Temean,
on 6/14/2011
Blog: Writing and Illustrating (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Publishing Industry, children writing, Publishers and Agencies, Conferences and Workshops, Conference Speech, Holly McGhee, Pippins Properties, Alvina Ling, Events, inspiration, Add a tag
Holly McGhee owner and agent from Pippin Properties ended the conference on June 5th with an inspirational speech, which touched many of our author’s souls. In fact, I am told that some were following Holly around like she was a rock star after her talk. When talking with Holly today, she let me know that Elena Mechlin, agent at Pippin Properties, had video taped her talk. Thought I would share it with you:
Congratulations!
Alvina Ling was promoted to Fiction Editorial Director
Talk tomorrow,
Kathy
Filed under: children writing, Conferences and Workshops, Events, inspiration, Publishers and Agencies, Publishing Industry Tagged: Alvina Ling, Conference Speech, Holly McGhee, Pippins Properties
4 Comments on Holly McGhee’s Inspirational Speech, last added: 6/16/2011
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By: CHRISTOPHER CHENG,
on 5/21/2011
Blog: CHRISTOPHER CHENG'S BLOG: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BOOKS (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: SCBWI, Alvina Ling, Add a tag
Alvina Ling, Executive Editor, for the USA publisher Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, was in town as one of the VIPs (Visiting International Publishers) so what an opportunity it was for some of the Sydney SCBWI folk, including Deb Abela (who had to rush off to the Aurealis Awards - good luck Deb), Jenny, Charlotte (see it was worth coming all the way from Orange), Chenoa, Mark, Kate, Serena (who has a wonderful new agent), and Susanne, to meet with her and chit chat. We had a wonderful night comparing the publishing scenes in both our countries, discussing publishing house terminologies, specific books that are published and just generally chit chatting. Alvina was wonderfully generous with her time and answers. We even squeezed in a quick stroll along the King Street shops beforehand.
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| chit chatting with Alvina |
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| playing with cameras |
Alvina is delightful. And of course some of us stayed on to dine too - and we ate very well, as these photos will testify.
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| house speciality - passionfruit souffle |
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| more to share |
A wonderful night with Alvina. Don't make it so long between visits Alvina!
By: Betsy Bird,
on 6/22/2010
Blog: A Fuse #8 Production (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Alvina Ling, Uncategorized, Laini Taylor, Karla Kuskin, Arthur A. Levine, Cynthia von Buhler, Fusenews, Claire Huchet Bishop, Fairuza Balk, Marcia Brown, Natasha Fadeeva, Patton Oswalt, snore-filled tears, The Seven Chinese Brothers, Tunde Adebimpe, Add a tag
Things that I have difficulty understanding: The rules of soccer. How to work an f-stop on a camera (or what it even means). The French language. The fact that actors Patton Oswalt and Tunde Adebimpe appear to be in a movie that is filming right now and is going by the title . . . The Seven Chinese Brothers. That brings to mind the Margaret Mahy version, not to mention the controversial Claire Huchet Bishop one (though that story had only five brothers in it). Actually, Ms. Bishop used to work in my children’s room (though when folks ask we usually mention the fact that Marcia Brown worked here first). The internet is curiously mum about this Patton/Adebimpe project so . . . we’ll just assume that it’s another picture book to screen adaptation. It gives my existence just the right dose of insanity I crave on a daily basis.
- By the way, if you’re still a little fuzzy on who that Patton Oswalt fellow is, (A) He was the voice of Ratatouille and (B) I just stumbled on his commencement speech given when he returned to his high school and it is precisely what I needed to read right now.
- New Blog Alert: Hardly counts if they’re famous, right? Aw, heck. Even famous editors need their plugs! Ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct pleasure to inform you that the great Arthur A. Levine, editor of the very Harry Potter books themselves and the man who helped to add the term Muggle to the American lexicon, is blogging. Granted, he has only a single solitary post up at the moment, but I anticipate great things for young Mr. Levine. Not that he doesn’t have a tough act to follow. His right hand, Cheryl Klein, has been mastering the form for years (there’s a new The Year of Secret Assignments cover?!!!)
- Hey! When I reviewed The Strange Case of Origami Yoda the other day I had no idea that it owed its birth to a BoingBoing piece. BoingBoing apparently just got alerted to that fact too. They seem grateful (though a BoingBoing review wouldn’t be out of place as well).
- I love it when a plan comes together. Or, to be more precise, I love it when folks I like decide to make books together. Folks that I like include author Laini Taylor and editor Alvina Ling. I have liked Laini’s work ever since I read her fantastic The Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer (now known merely as Blackbringer). I have liked Alvina’s work ever since I read The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin. I have liked the two of them from
7 Comments on Fusenews: King Friday the XIII gave the rehearsal dinner speech, last added: 6/24/2010Display Comments Add a Comment
She’s pretty witty! (
By: SCBWI,
on 1/30/2010
Blog: The Official SCBWI 10th Annual New York Conference Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: NY10, alvina ling, literary fiction, Add a tag
Many editors want to hit the sweet spot of a combination of both literary and commercial.
HOLES by Louis Sachar is a good example.
By: SCBWI,
on 1/30/2010
Blog: The Official SCBWI 10th Annual New York Conference Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: NY10, alvina ling, literary fiction, Add a tag
Alvina Ling, Senior Editor, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Alvina's main love is literary fiction.
But what is it?
(A general definition from Alivina) Literary fiction focuses on the character, where commercial fiction generally focuses on the plot.
In the adult world, literary fiction is a genre, but not in the children's book world.
A great example of literary fiction is FIREGIRL by Tony Abbott.
Literary fiction doesn't have anything to do with how well a book is written.
Posted by Jolie
By: Jennifer Thermes,
on 10/20/2009
Blog: Art, Words, Life (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Rutgers One-On-One Plus Conference, RUCCL, Alvina Ling, Add a tag
This past Saturday I woke up earlier than I thought was physically possible, drank too much coffee, and drove to New Jersey for the Rutgers One-on-One Plus Conference, sponsored by the Rutgers University Council on Children's Literature. This was my first time going. I was excited, nervous, and curious at the same time.
Each attendee at the conference was paired with someone in the children's book field-- an editor, art director, agent, author or illustrator-- for a 45 minute one-on-one mentoring session. Later, groups of five mentors and mentees met to discuss questions anyone might have. There was lunch and a panel of speakers. Throughout the day mentees were encouraged to seek out people who might be interested in their work and introduce themselves. It was intense. (Especially for an introvert!) But it wasn't as intimidating as I'd thought it might be. Everyone was friendly and approachable.
The morning of the conference we found out who our mentors were. I almost fell off my chair when I learned that I'd been paired with Alvina Ling, Senior Editor at Little, Brown. I knew who she was from the Blue Rose Girls blog and from some of the fabulous books she's worked on. I was thrilled!
Alvina offered helpful insight and suggestions about some of the stories I've been working on. You know that "a-ha!" feeling when somebody says just the right words and suddenly a door to a new solution opens? That's how I felt. We also talked about my portfolio. The conversation was very, very encouraging!
The panel speakers were full of good tips, such as-- figure out how old you are inside when creating a story and find the best way to leverage that. Go for the "psychological verisimilitude," the truth, at the core of your story and strengthen it. And no matter how much technology changes the way we read books in the future, it will always be story that matters.
Judy Freeman did a wonderful book talk (with music) including a hilarious segment on-- groan-- celebrity children's books. (I thought she was kidding about this. Sadly, not.)
All in all it was an inspiring day. Isn't that usually how it is when people who love children's books get together?
By: Mark G. Mitchell,
on 5/4/2009
Blog: How To Be A Children's Book Illustrator (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: News, Alvina Ling, Austin SCBWI, Pictures worth a thousand words, Uncategorized, The Weinstein Company, Clint Young, Erin Murphy, Little, "the Inklings", "Toast", Broan and Compnay, LucasFilm, Add a tag
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Could it have been the book trailer that led to the exciting auction in New York for the picture book proposal Toast Friday?
Or was it just the exquisite color illustrations by illustrator-author and animation concept artist Clint Young of Austin, Texas?
Blog: SCBWI Writers of Lower Fairfield (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Jennifer DeChiara, Editor's Evening, Alvina Ling, Add a tag
From left to right: Alvina Ling, Kristin Quisgard, Liz Unger, Stacy Barnett Mozer, Jenny Mehta, Sari Bodi, Tracy Prorosoff, and Joan Riordan
Last night seven writers traveled into Manhattan to literary agent Jennifer DeChiara's office to meet with Alvina Ling, Senior Editor at Little, Brown. Jennifer opened the evening by having the writers introduce themselves. Then Alvina discussed her list and the acquisition process at Little, Brown. Open to books from Picture Book to YA, Alvina said that she couldn't choose which type of book she likes to edit best. Her taste tends to be towards literary fiction. She likes multicultural issue books and books that make kids think. YA tends to have a commercial voice. Middle Grade is a growing market and she is always looking for more submissions in that area. Picture books are a tougher market. She looks for books that have a great character to launch or some special hook.
The rest of the evening was spent on the writers' manuscripts. Alvina shared a wonderful list from Little, Brown called "List of Attributes that Make A Good Children's Book (In Our Opinion)". Some common advice in the critiques was to start with a grabber beginning, in the case of picture books, to be careful of rhyme because it has to be done well, and to make sure that the child character has the chance to solve his or her own problems.
Thank you to Jennifer DeChiara for continuing to provide writers with these wonderful opportunities. Thank you to Alvina for taking the time to meet with us.
By: Mark G. Mitchell,
on 11/16/2008
Blog: How To Be A Children's Book Illustrator (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Alvina Ling, Zen, feature interview, Mark Mitchell, Special treats, Little Brown and Company, children's book illustrations, "Lon Po Po", "Wabi Sabi", Austin Public Library, author Mark Reibstein, Caldecott Medal, Celia Holm, children's book illustrator Ed Young, Collage illustrations, Hastings on the Hudson Public Library, Philomel, Raab Associates, Tara Koppel, Viking Penguin, Add a tag
Collage illustrations
A cat’s journey to find the meaning of her name leads her from her Kyoto home to the pine trees at the foot of Mount Hiei.
And there from a wise Zen monk-ey, our questing cat learns ‘a way of seeing’ that is at the heart of the culture of her land.
Wabi Sabi, the Japanese and Tao zen concept that is also the cat’s name, ”finds beauty and harmony in what is simple, imperfect, natural, modest and mysterious.”
“It can even be a little dark, but it is also warm and comfortable.”
Wabi Sabi, by Mark Reibstein and renown illustrator Ed Young (published by Little Brown and Company) was named one of The New York Times “Ten Best Illustrated Books” of 2008.
A native of Tientsin, China who was a child in Shanghai during the World War II years, Young came to the United States in the 1950s and worked as a graphic designer before turning to children’s book illustration. He has illustrated 8o books, several of which he has written.
He has worked in many mediums, from authentic Chinese paper cuts to the soft, bright pastels of Lon Po Po, his 1989 telling of a Chinese “Red Riding Hood” fable, in which three sisters outwit a wolf who comes to their house. The book published by Viking Penguin imprint Philomel won the Caldecott Medal.
How To Be A Children’s Book Illustrator recently interviewed Young about his pictures for Wabi Sabi.
Here, Young employed standard and some not-so-standard collage techniques.
“I’ve always used it in doing other mediums, because it’s easier to lay out compositions and make decisions with collage,” he said from his home in Hastings on the Hudson, New York on a Saturday morning in early November.
(A collage is a work of art created by gluing bits of paper, fabric, scraps, photographs or other materials to a flat surface, often combining the imagery with painting and drawing. Young has cited the collage designs of Henri Matisse as a major influence on his work.)
“It’s easier to change around, nothing is permanently pasted down,” Young said. “It’s flexible and alive. With other mediums you often get tight too quickly, then you get attached to it and it’s hard to change. Collage was something I used for sketching in the past. Now I use it to finish my work.”
Conversely, he drew pencil thumbnails in his sketchbook to get the idea formation process going for Wabi Sabi. When he begins to work on an actual collage illustration, Young will place an item such as “a piece of bow” on the paper, and adds from there. For this he keeps several boxes of scraps, ribbons, colored tissue — arranged in color schemes.
“I work flat until they are arranged in a way that’s satisfactory, then I’ll fix them to the paper with a little dab of Gluestick on the corner so the pieces won’t fly all over the place.
“It’s really play. You don’t get down to make something firm until the [pieces] start to talk to you. Then you listen. “
“Illustrating children’s books is like making a movie,” Young said. “You’re making a series of pictures that tell a story. Those pictures are also like words made by you to lay out the moods.
“When you have the pictures together it’s like phrases. The phases have their own spirit and that becomes a poem of some sort — if they hang together right. But it’s very different than making a singular picture.
“In the concept stage, I am placing things down to start telling the story. Then several stages down the line, I introduce the colors. I play around with colors when the composition is right.
“These [colors and shapes] shift around. They have to work with the page. They have to flow from one to the other one so that when you flip the page, you’re either surprised by something, or staying in the mood for the next picture.”
The sequence is something to behold in Wabi Sabi. The viewer does indeed feel like he’s moving from mood to mood, experiencing all the contrasting sights and emotions, epiphanies and wonderment of this cat on her journey to find who she is.
The story behind the illustrations should be made an epilogue to the book in the second edition.
Young’s first set of illustrations, which took him two years to complete, mysteriously disappeared after he dropped them off on the front porch of his agent’s house.
(While taking his wife to the hospital, Young had dropped the bundled illustrations in an envelope at the agent’s doorstep, but they never showed up at the N.Y.C. office of his editor Alvina Ling. The agent never saw the package. Police and parcel delivery services were called. Locations were scoured to no avail.)
A few months later, when everyone came to grips with the idea that the art truly was lost, he had to start over with only weeks until his deadline. In the meantime, his wife had just died of cancer. “I was in crisis mode,” Young said.
He had already cleaned out and re-organized his studio. The brightly
colored paper and tissue scraps and slivers that had been the raw materials for his pictures were gone. He had also tossed all of his visual references — except for some angled, distorted snapshots that Ling had made of the collages in his studio.
By now, though, Young knew that in his second go-around he would take a radical approach.
The look of the book would be quite different.
“Wabi Sabi is a term used for celebrating the common things that people overlook and seeing beauty in them,” Young said. “When I did the first round, I used beautiful new things, many done from scratch. And fresh things, although the pictures were beautiful, didn’t really develop the idea of wabi sabi.
“So when I started my second version, I decided to use wabi sabi materials.
“Wabi Sabi does not occur when something is newly made because it hasn’t got to that point where the soul is revealed. New things don’t have stories to tell.
He would have to work very fast. He recruited his 12 year old daughter to help him.
“In the end papers, you see cat foot prints, for example. When they were pouring concrete on my garage driveway, the cat actually walked on it. I wanted the images because that said something about the journey. So I had my daughter photograph that.”
Pine needles that Young’s daughter brought home from summer camp clump and adorn the trees of the forest on the book’s back cover and elsewhere in the pages. (In the original first set of collages, the pines were merely tree stem shapes cut from colored paper.)
The tree bark texture is actually from a large weatherworn outdoor thermometer in his back yard.
(Young is fond of this artifact.)
The autumn leaves on pps 17-18 are … autumn leaves, collected by Young and his daughter.
Other bits of photographed foliage and nature and urban scenes were –in time honored collage tradition — clipped from the covers of Smithsonian and other glossy magazines.
The bamboo leaf shapes are scissored from real corn husks. A rug mat the cats in the story sleep on is made of lint scraped from the Youngs’ clothes dryer. The speckled cover of a college composition book provides the textured background for our cat heroine in one of Wabi Sabi’s epiphany moments near the conclusion.
The mottled brown pattern of the cat herself throughout the book comes from the rusted surface of a portable cook stove Young owns.
All of these materials — the leaves, the pine needles, the dryer lint, even the big thermometer and the stove! –were taken down to a neighborhood copy shop, layed on top of the glass of a color Xerox machine– and photocopied! (”It probably isn’t something you could do at Staples,” Young offered.) Then he and his daughter merely cut around the myriad shapes and patterns in the color copies — to create the images for the story.
“I try to take the time to find the soul of a story I illustrate,” Young said. “And, well, Wabi Sabi gave me the theme I needed to make use of that challenge,” Young said. “We were using things people have discarded, things people don’t want to celebrate. And I was reminded that this — and everything — is part of a process.
“With illustration, it’s no different. If I lose this set, I’m not the same person any more — so I’ll do another set. One round is one telling. The next round is another telling. I’m just finished for this round.
“The lesson is that nothing is frozen. If the book is ever to be made again, it can be retold by another person in a different way. And it could be just as good, or better.”
* * * * *
The missing set of originals have been alluded to in press releases, a review in School Library Journal and other sources. I got additional details from Mr. Young and a video he loaned me of a talk he gave this fall at the Hastings on the Hudson Public Library. The talk was in conjunction with an exhibit of the Wabi Sabi artwork at the library — All the art, Both sets!. The once-missing original pictures showed up almost a year after they disappeared — in a Lutheran church where Young teaches Tai Chi classes!
“I’ve had Individual pieces of my art that were lost before, and even whole sets of illustrations.
But I never had a set of illustrations that was lost — and then found!” Young told his appreciative library audience.
* * * *
My warm thanks to Mr. Young, Tara Koppel with Raab Associates Inc. and Celia Holm, Children’s Librarian at the Spicewood Springs Branch of the Austin Public Library for their help with this article. Mark Mitchell
Lon Po Po (inside illustration)
Blog: SCBWI Writers of Lower Fairfield (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Wednesday, October 15 with Nancy Mercado
Nancy is at Roaring Brook Press. She is interested in contemporary, realistic, hopeful chapter books, middle grade and YA novels. She's also been acquiring some YA memoirs in the last few months and one graphic novel.
Thursday, November 6 and Thursday, December 16 with Alvina Ling
Alvina is at Little, Brown Books for Young Children. She acquires books for all ages, with a particular interest in literary fiction for the Middle Grade and Young Adult audience. She is also looking for beautiful and/or unique picture books as well as trade nonfiction books.
Coming Soon: Caitlyn Dlouhy
The cost of each evening is $125. It includes a personal critique on up to ten manuscript pages. The evenings take place at Jennifer DeChiara's office in New York City. They run from 6 - 8 pm.
Please email Stacy for more information and to reserve a spot. Space is limited to a maximum of seven participants.
For more information about our first editor evening, see the post in July.
By: Julie Fortenberry,
on 11/10/2007
Blog: Children's Illustration (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Alvina Ling, Grace Lin, Add a tag
http://www.hbook.com/audio/podcasts/lin_ling.mp3
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By: Mark,
on 5/16/2007
Blog: Just One More Book Children's Book Podcast (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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This episode of Just One More Book! is part of our showcase coverage of the International Reading Association’s 52nd annual conference.
Mark speaks with Alvina Ling and Peter Brown about the process of writing and editing Peter’s book Flight of the Dodo.
Participate in the conversation by leaving a comment on this interview, or send an email to [email protected].
Tags:alvina ling, Flight of the Dodo, IRA2007, Peter Brownalvina ling, Flight of the Dodo, IRA2007, Peter Brown
By: Betsy Bird,
on 4/9/2007
Blog: A Fuse #8 Production (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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As I assume that all of you already are aware of the 7-Imp interviews, I don't like to point out one over another for fear of people thinking that I'm choosing my favorite people. So let's just makes something perfectly clear, children: I love each and everyone of you equally. Except for you, Alvina. I like you a whole heckuva lot more, so I'm highlighting the 7-Imp interview with you that's up right now.
And if you find yourself pouting over my fickle heart, do so while checking out this great interview with Calef Brown which I found via Children's Illustration. Those of you intending to polish up your interview skills would do well to perform a compare/contrast on these two different styles of the form.
By: Mark,
on 3/25/2007
Blog: Just One More Book Children's Book Podcast (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Mark speaks with editor Alvina Ling about her progression in the book publishing industry, the role of an editor, and taking risks to bring Jimmy Liao’s magical book, The Sound of Colors, to North America.
Books mentioned:
Participate in the conversation by leaving a comment on this interview, or send an email to [email protected].
Photo: The Career Cookbook
Tags:alvina ling, childrens books, the sound of colorsalvina ling, childrens books, the sound of colors
That is fascinating, Alvina! Thanks for sharing it. Grace, do you still have Alvina's letter?
And glad to see you blogging again.
Good luck with the move!
I would love to hear more of this story. Thanks for posting, Alvina.
I love this, Alvina!! What an awesome time capsule - and how terrific that Grace's dreams have come true, thanks in part your editorial awesomeness!