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These reindeers created by Christine Brallier are getting ready to take off on their Christmas Eve trip to help Santa deliver his gifts. It is from her children’s book, The Night Before Christmas.  The illustrations were created by Christine using stained glass mosaics. http://www.cbmosaics.com/book/

Creator of Clifford the Big Red Dog Norman Bridwell, 86, died last Friday at a hospital on Martha’s Vineyard. Scholastic says his over 150 titles have 129 million copies in print worldwide. Scholastic CEO Dick Robinson said, “Norman personified the values that we as parents and educators hope to communicate to our children – kindness, compassion, helpfulness, gratitude – through the Clifford stories which have been loved for more than fifty years.”

Jama Kim Rattigan on her blog, Jama’s Alphabet Soup, featured H CATCH THAT COOKIE. I feature the book written by Hallie Drand (A.K.A Holly McGhee) and illustrated by David Small in August. You can click their names to view those posts. But Jama’s post are so much fun. She always ties books in with recipes.

I think I am going to try the recipe for the cookies in the post and show them off like she did with the book during Christmas.

Below is a list of the Ingredients, click the Directions at the bottom to jump back over to Jama’s blog to read the rest and see her fun display of her cookies and the book.

GINGERBREAD CUTOUT COOKIES

Total Time: Prep: 30 minutes + chilling. Bake: 10 minutes/batch + cooling.

Yield: 60 cookies

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup molasses
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Vanilla frosting of your choice
• Red and green paste food coloring

Directions:

Children’s writer Jennifer Reinharz reported a few months ago that she became a contributing writer at Mamalode. Her second article, A Letter to my Palestinian-American Muslim Friend has been posted. They track the number of unique views, likes, comments, and shares and they base her success on this, so if you get a chance take a minute to read her new article.

Jennifer says, “My path to Kidlit author has yet to be a straight line, but I can’t help but think that getting a chance to connect and share one of my stories with the Mommies, etc. is an example of heading right direction.”

This is a goods lesson for all of us. You just never know where your next success will come from and how one little thing can lead to another.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Sunday night I was walking the Season Premier of The Walking Dead (Yes, I’m guilty of watching a show with Zombies – who knew?).

Anyway, they always have great commercials that tie into the theme of the show and KELLY CALABRESE was the main female in the commercial. So exciting! Kelly is an actress and writer from NYC and someone who is very active with volunteering with the NJSCBWI. Congratulations, Kelly!

If you have Cable TV and have on demand, you could watch it to see Kelly. She is the redhead in the first or second commercial.

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Eileen Cameron and Doris Ettlinger new book RUPERT’S PARCHMENT, Story of Magna Carta! on the granting of Magna Carta will be available in bookstores on February 2015 to help celebrate the 800th Anniversary on June 15, 2015.

Eileen and Doris’ book, G IS FOR THE GARDEN STATE, has been chosen by the NJ 350th Anniversary Committee as one of the best 101 books on NJ for the Anniversary.

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Mamalode is a magazine. A website. A movement. Their readers and writers are moms—with a smattering of dads, kids, grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends.

On October 8th, Mamalode(Parenting/Motherhood Website) Magazine published Jennifer Reinharz most recent blog post, “The Day I Deleted Minecraft; a letter to my son.” She is very excited about the opportunity of becoming a contributing writer for the magazine.  

From October 8th-November 8th Mamalode will track the number of “unique views” of Jennifer’s essay on their site. The number of views, likes, comments, and shares is directly tied to her recognition (financial and otherwise :-).
Jennifer wrote saying, “Like many of us, my dream is to be a published Kidlit author with agent representation. However, the contest and writing opportunities, or as I like to call them “nuggets” that you often share are worth pursuing.  My path to Kidlit author has yet to be a straight line, but I can’t help but think that getting a chance to connect and share one of my stories with the Mommies, etc. is an example of heading right direction.

So help Jennifer and please click this link to her article:

http://mamalode.com/story/detail/the-day-i-deleted-minecraft-a-letter-to-my-son

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Sarah Dotts Barley

Sarah Dotts Barley has joined Flatiron Books as senior editor, focusing on YA crossover. Previously, Barley was an editor at Harper Children’s/HarperTeen.

Anne Heltzel has joined Abrams as editor, primarily acquiring books for its middle grade and teen imprint, Amulet Books. She worked previously as an associate editor at Razorbill and is also a published author.

At Scholastic, Liza Baker has re-joined the company as vp, executive editorial director of Cartwheel and Orchard Books. She was most recently executive editorial director, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

It seems like I’ve been hearing from a lot of readers of this blog with good news. Some I can report now, Like Jennifer Reinharz who sent me this news:

The 83rd Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition notified me last week that my blog post, “A Pleasant Passover” was awarded 5th place in the Inspirational Writing category. 

She said, “If it wasn’t for your blog, I wouldn’t have entered the contest!”

You can read it on Jennifer’s blog: http://redsaidwhat.com/2014/05/01/128/

Then I heard from Karen Fortunati. She told me after seeing my post about the SCBWI Work-in-Progress Grant, she submitted her Contemporary YA novel, The D-Day List, and WON!

Here’s a blurb about her book:

For seventeen-year-old Catherine Pulaski, life is intolerable with bipolar disorder and depression. There’s only one way out but before she can kill herself, she’s got to accomplish the one item on her D-Day List. And if she does, it may change everything.

I have a feeling I missed someone, so if I missed you please email me again. Thanks!

Here are some other industry changes. Many of you know the lovely Allison Wortche and Katherine Harrison. I was so happy to hear their news.

At Knopf Children’s, Allison Wortche has been promoted to senior editor while Katherine Harrison moves up to associate editor.

Phaidon has hired Cecily Kaiser as publishing director, Children’s Books and Meagan Bennett as art director for the division, both reporting to Deb Aaronson out of the company’s New York offices.

Jonathan Jao will join Harper on September 8 as vp, executive editor, reporting to Jonathan Burnham. Previously he was a senior editor at Random House.

Lauren Scobell has joined Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group as director, Swoon Reads.

You should get out your Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market by Chuck Sambuchino and make the changes.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Tying Your Book to Academic Standards and

Using Academic Standards as a Key Marketing Tool

By: Jennifer Reinharz, M.S.Ed

            Jane Kirkland is the creator of Take a Walk Books (www.takeawalk.com), a self published nature book series as well as an accomplished and award winning author, speaker, photographer and TV/radio personality.

            When educators purchase books and materials to use in the classroom, they make sure their selections are aligned with the state’s academic standards.  When writers market their work, they think about the best way to appeal to the audience. 

By tying her books to academic standards, Ms. Kirkland has found a creative but practical way to bridge these two worlds.  She recommends that writers try it as it is an opportunity to market one’s work, sell more books and programs, and gain a deeper understanding of the audience, school-aged children.

What are academic standards? 

            Academic standards are a list of learning goals that children must meet in every grade or every other grade.  They are divided into two types: content standards or what a student needs to know and performance standards or how well a student can perform that goal.

            Standards exist in each of the main content areas: English/Language Arts (ELA), Social Studies, Math and Science.  The academic standards do not provide materials or assessment.  It is the role of the teacher and administrators to determine the method or curriculum for teaching these goals. 

            Academic standards for students in grades K-12 continue to evolve.  Standards typically vary by state and in some cases, by city.  In 2010, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers created a set of standards called the Common Core State Standards for Math and English/Language Arts (which includes literacy in Social Studies and Science).  To date, 45 states have voluntarily adopted these standards.  Effective September 2012, all of the school districts in these states will align their related curriculum with the new learning goals. 

What does this mean for writers?

            Administrators and teachers are and will continue to pay close attention to fiction and nonfiction materials purchased for the classroom to ensure that they fit with the academic standards.   

            By correlating one’s work to current standards, it becomes a viable teaching tool that helps to supplement curriculum.  It also might become recommended or required reading.  This can help sell more books. 

            By correlating school programs to the standards, a writer expands her funding sources beyond parent associations to include the school district and educational grants.  It can also help to secure annual school visits and sell more programs.

            Knowing the standards gives a writer a better understanding of what the reader is supposed to know and be able to do at his grade level.

Here’s an example:

            With her Take a Walk Books in mind, Ms. Kirkland read the 4^th grade Pennsylvania Science Standards.  One 4^th grade learning goal is that children must be able to compare lotic with lentic water systems.  To help students understand this concept, she included the definitions of lotic and lentic in t