Another BAD SCHOOL verse

"Lesson Plan"

Tommy went to summer camp
And caught a naughty habit.
Back in school when Tommy saw
Any toy he'd grab it.

Tommy's teacher knew to head off
Classroom wide d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r.
She taught Tommy's classmates to
Pull their toys back faster.

What is High Concept?

 

Scholastic launched Comic Guy author TIMOTHY ROLAND's new series this month. Premise: a boy eats a radioactive banana and whenever he is over-excited he turns into a monkey. Voila: high concept! In MONKEY ME, the narration moves from prose to graphic storytelling when Clyde, the afflicted, turns monkey. MONKEY ME is part of Scholastic's new early reader program Branches.

Youth Wants to Know!

Is the ornery gender issue that compels using the plurals THEY and THEIR when referring to a single HE or SHE, is it solved? We notice women using SHE and men using HE. Is the problem neutralized?

We love reading watching Ask the Editor on Merriam Webster dot com. Listen to what the professional usage arbiters think. You have to click the tiny image below to make it readable. Twitter's usage sounds wrong to us.

Questions? Comments?

Dear Teen Me

Read the accumulated wisdom debut author Christopher Long delivers to his teen self. Check it out.

And buy HERO WORSHIP. See why we are interested in Chris.

Sharon Biggs Waller— Who?

Hey! Read this Penguin interview 

with debut author Sharon Biggs Waller.

The 2014 ALA Awards!

Has it always been called Youth Media? We never use the phrase. Anyways, we say the awards look well balanced— and we are not adding for a change— this year. And look at all the non-fiction! Follow this link to see the ALA's choice of last year's most glorious books.

from BAD SCHOOL, a collection

"Odd Man Out"

A ruckus at the kickball game 
Cut recess time in half.
It ended when the principal
Let loose a belly laugh.

The students had been battling
About the kickball score.
The principal said, “Children,
Shall I call an auditor?”

Astonishment understates
The look the students had,
As cautiously they lined to leave,
For plainly he’d gone mad.

*ditties on this blog are ST copyrights, if you are wondering....

From the Department of It's Always Something

We are asked How can I follow this blog? Our answer: dunno. We still took action. We added a gadget to the panel of options, on the right. Hit the bottom button +1. You now are a follower— either that or you just gave us a thumbs up. One or the other. No matter: STNY thanks you.

MONKEY ONO and Its Publisher

Here is a VerY FunnY book by J.C. Phillipps's— Julie. Viking inexplicably pub'd it oh, so quietly last year. (Why, Penguin, why?) Early sales reflected the inattention and it is struggling to catch up.

Now what?  

It's a race against time, that's what! Will the rate of sales pick up fast enough? Or will the Penguin bean counters show MONKEY ONO the indignation of a remainder sale? 

That only slightly overstates the dynamic at the big houses— the shrinking timeframe a book has  to prove itself. MONKEY ONO is Julie's third Viking picturebook,  (none remaindered!) and her best— so far, that is (just wait until April!)— and it is confounding sales do not reflect it.

Check out, MONKEY ONO's trailer. And buy the book! It's a keeper!

Take Note People!

We found Christopher Long in the slush pile! Of course, STNY no longer accepts slush but pre-pub'd authors take heart: discoveries happen.

We liked Chris's original view of hero-hood and his teen-like, contemporary regard for his renegade principles (they refuse to register their powers with authorities and must hide out in a shelter beneath a highway underpass and scrounge out a living). HERO WORSHIP required more revisions than we like. Chris had to learn how very high the bar is set; but he did and we got what we wanted. Several editors rejected the ms. (Darn anti anti-hero Editors!) Brian Farry at Flux saw what we see, Chris's promise for a sustainable career. That is what we look for. Chris's new manuscript suggests we picked right. Check back here when we are ready to make an announcement. In the meantime, read HERO WORSHIP. It is dang exciting. And fun!

HOLY SMOKE!

Yikes! We may have tripped into a LinkedIn situation.

This week, we invited colleagues and cohorts to become connections (like FaceBook's friends) and also accepted several dozen longstanding invites.

Well, yikes! 

Either we goofed or LinkedIn went haywire— because acceptances are running 300% above invites. 

Um...?

While it may be embarrassing to be supposed to have come calling, unbidden, with what must seem hat in hand— Honey! There's a literary agency at the door. Did you invite them? What should we do?— we are happy folks want to connect with STNY.

Welcome new connections! Even you wondering Literary agency? Are they staying for dinner?

A whopping Discount!

The ebook edition of John's second and very, very good novel is on sale within Candlewick's E-Volt site for $2.99 or less! until Jan 31. You'd be a fool to miss this smart, contemporary, original YA with a fierce protagonist who cusses up a storm. And makes pals with an A-list Hollywood starlet.

Extra Clever Cinderella!

Extra clever Cinderella

Slips a heel and gets a fella.

My, my but those two step sisters—

Mad as hornets, both with blisters!

*this is copyrighted*

TEA PARTY RULES!

How we have longed to brag about our Ame Dyckman's TEA PARTY RULES (with pictures by K. G. Campbell), new from Viking. But our efforts to share the fab trailer were thwarted. You can see it on Ame's site. In the meantime, look at this good attention it is getting.

a Publisher's Weekly STAR!

a Kirkus STAR!

a Booklist STAR!

and is a Junior Library Guild selection. 

And TEA PARTY RULES sold in Hebrew, too— because bears in the backyard is a big problem there....

Vicky Darling is the rebellious, artistically talented daughter of a wealthy plumbing magnate, coming of age in Edwardian England at the height of the women’s suffrage movement.

Capitalizing on the Downton Abbey trend, Viking is publish our terrific historic novel by debut author Sharon Biggs Waller. Sharon's title comes from Queen Victoria's sour comments on the suffragette movement, which supplies the novel's backdrop and, increasingly throughout, its protagonist's concerns. 

A MAD, WICKED FOLLY is pub'g tomorrow. A whole lot of buzz is brewing (if buzz may be understood to brew). SLJ *starred* its review. USA Today is featuring the book today. Check it out now! Buy this book!