No Kids in Cages

We don't usually get overtly political over here, but there are times when it's unavoidable. Times when something is so unconscionably, unimaginably WRONG that speaking out is not an option. Over the past few days we've seen the rights and well-being of migrant children, of "their" children, clearly articulated as less important than the rights and well-being of "our" children, doing irreparable damage to thousands as a result. Even with the promised incremental change to policy, kids have already been harmed, and it's inexcusable.

A vast swath of the kidlit community has come together in protest of this policy, publicly signing an open letter in opposition to the conditions under which these immigrant children are being held, and raising an incredible $173,533 so far for donation to Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) and a handful of other organizations providing services to immigrants and refugees at the border. You can read more and donate here.

The final thought I'd like to leave you with is this tweet from fellow author Carrie Jones:

If you are writing books for teens and kids, it is usually a good idea to actually care about teens and kids.

Not just some kids and teens.
All kids and teens.

— Carrie Jones (@carriejonesbook) June 19, 2018

Happy Summer!

Between early-summer travel, summer school class prep, copious novel rewriting, and some much-needed down time, it's been quiet here on the blog, but here's me and Tanita just cruising in to say HAPPY SUMMER and we'll be back with some more book reviews and other fun stuff soon! In the meantime, enjoy this happily reading hippo I found.

Throwback Thursday: Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading

This was pretty typical of me at a certain age (by which I mean all the ages including now...). I believe that is a Sweet Valley High book I was reading. We're at a Christmas party, and my mom and stepdad are engrossed in an actual conversation which I was trying very hard to ignore.

In all seriousness, this was a Christmas party I loved to go to as a kid, at the house of one of my mom's former teachers from Gardena High School, Richard Cody. We used to attend annually, driving from our home in the Inland Empire to their house in Santa Ana. In my role as endless, annoying fountain of Christmas spirit from July onwards, I was dazzled by something as simple as the taillights of the traffic on the 91 freeway, festive ribbons of red and white that were probably making my parents cuss under their breath.

Richard Cody and his wife had a huge network of extended family and friends, former students, children biological, foster, and adopted, and so on and so forth. We'd enjoy Christmas carols around the piano (often with me or my mom playing), orange sherbet punch, and a reading of The Night Before Christmas that culminated in Santa coming down the stairs and handing presents out to all the kids. When I was little, Santa was this really tall man named Benjamin, and then his son Malik inherited the post--that might be him on the left in the picture, or possibly his brother Ibi. (Clearly nobody was alarmed by Santa suddenly changing from white to black in the space of a year.)

That diverse cacophony of names, though: Malik, Ibi. Their mom Twyla. Erlene, Richard's wife. Ted and Ariana, their biological kids. Moises, Marcos. Plenty of others I don't remember. It was a music, just as much as the notes from the piano; a very SoCal music. The Codys' expansive and generous social circle taught me a lot about the diversity of where I lived.

This would probably be a good December post, but in keeping with my childhood singing of Christmas carols at any given time of year, I'm posting it now.

SAVE THE DATE: KidLitCon 2019 in Providence, RI

It's hard to believe, but I don't think we've posted about this yet--the next Kidlitosphere Conference is already well into the planning stages, spearheaded by our own Charlotte Taylor of Charlotte's Library and Mia Wenjen of Pragmatic Mom. It'll be in Providence, RI on March 22-23, 2019, and it's got its own nifty website!

The latest awesome news about the conference is that Charlotte applied for and GOT a sizeable grant from the Providence Tourism Council, which means we can stretch our small budget and make the conference an even more memorable experience for everyone. This next con promises to be bigger and better than ever, too, with Charlotte and Mia at the helm. Reaching Readers is the theme, and there's already an incredible list of attending bloggers and authors who have plans to come.

If you've been to KidLitCon before, you'll know that it offers a far more intimate and less formal opportunity for bloggers, authors, librarians, teachers, illustrators, and other devotees of kidlit to come together and discuss current and ongoing issues, as well as sharing our areas of knowledge and expertise for the benefit of the kids (and, let's face it, adults) who read and enjoy books for young people. Speaking personally, it's at KidLitCon that I "found my tribe," so to speak--I've made lifelong friends with fellow book lovers who might be writers, readers, or both, but regardless of our actual job titles, we share that same passion.

I'm planning to attend (although there's a possibility I might be traveling elsewhere at the time, I'm hoping to make it all happen!) and look forward to meeting even more members of the tribe--so if you're interested, go check out the programming notes and get involved in a panel!

Mental Health Awareness Month: A Review Roundup

Source: Mental Health America

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we've reviewed a number of titles over the years that we thought were exceptional portrayals of the experience of mental illness and related difficulties. As we all know, reading a good book can make us feel less alone--and, honestly, sometimes that's the one thing you need in order not to go over the edge. So here, in no particular order, is a by no means exhaustive list of recommended reads for Mental Health Month:

The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini

Try Not to Breathe by Jennifer R. Hubbard

100 Days of Cake by Shari Goldhagen

Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos

This is How I Find Her by Sara Polsky

Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley

Delicate Monsters by Stephanie Kuehn

Define "Normal" by Julie Anne Peters

First Day on Earth by Cecil Castellucci

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

Scars by Cheryl Rainfield

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Nice Girls Endure by Chris Struyk-Bonn

These Gentle Wounds by Helene Dunbar

Thursday Bits and Bobs and Whatnot

...I'll leave you to decide which are the bits, which are the bobs, and which are the whatnot.

Firstly, I don't want anyone to miss the great Kickstarter project that has been launched by our good blogging friend Lee Wind of “I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the Hell Do I Read?” Lee says:

With your help, and the help of our community, the professionally designed, copy-edited, and published book of my young adult novel, “Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill,” will become a reality. 

Together, we’ll donate at least 400 copies to LGBTQ and Allied Teens.

Together, we can change lives, shift the cultural conversation, and empower every teen who reads it to dig deeper, be inspired, and create their own future.

Donate to the Kickstarter and watch the video right here. You can also check out Lee's Facebook Live event coming up: "I’ll be doing a Facebook Live event on Feb 19 at Noon Pacific to demo 'instant antiquing' (what Wyatt is doing in the first chapter of the book) and celebrate the project President’s Day-style."

---

In case you missed it, don't forget the Cybils Awards have been announced! Check out the winning titles for 2017 over on the Cybils blog, and stay tuned right here on Finding Wonderland for upcoming reviews of nominees and finalists from the Spec Fic and Graphic Novels categories.

Happy New Year--and Happy Writing!

Words of wisdom from Lawrence Ferlinghetti's typewriter in the Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., augmented with a few extra for those of us who need them.

May your 2018 be the best writing year yet!

XO,
Sarah and Tanita

Happy NaNoWriMo 2017!

Hey, it's November, and that means it's National Novel Writing Month! As per usual for me lately, I don't even have a wisp of a dream of a hope of participating--but that doesn't mean I don't LOVE NaNoWriMo. I've been a participant (and a completer) a handful of times in the past, and I'm here to encourage you to GO FOR IT if you can. You never know what greatness might occur; what jewels in the rough; what bezoars in the poo, or whichever metaphor you prefer.

Don't believe me? Well, two of my three PUBLISHED novels started during NaNoWriMo. I wouldn't necessarily describe myself as either a panster or a plotter, but the evidence seems to tip me into the former category, doesn't it? When you let the words flow, sometimes that's what you need to find your voice and loosen your imagination.

So. No excuses (unless you're like me and have enough work this month for at least two months' worth of stress)--grab your computer and get going!

Throwback Thursday: Sarah as Ramona

I admit I've been a bit quiet lately, but I thought I'd emerge momentarily to put up a little photo comparison that I assembled a while back, featuring me with a really 1980s-tastic haircut courtesy of my mom and/or Fantastic Sam's (is it the Mary Lou Retton? the Dorothy Hamill? we may never know), along with the historically appropriate cover of Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary. (While you peruse the pictorial evidence, I'll be groaning over the fact that I've gotten to a stage in life when I can use the word "historical" in reference to myself.)

Sarah, Age 6, and Ramona, Age 8

I adored the Ramona books, but I also saw her as this kind of trickster figure without any impulse control. Reading about her exploits left me in awe and cringing at the same time. I guess that was the idea--if, for instance, I could READ about Ramona cracking an egg all over her head during lunch at school, I wouldn't actually DO it. Of course, I would never have done such a thing as a kid, and obviously the very idea was alarming enough that I remember that scene TO THIS VERY DAY.

Ramona is still a classic, which amazes me; but there are so many wonderful kids' chapter books being written and illustrated now, too--I admit to being out of touch with reading for that age group, but I always rely on my work as the Cybils blog co-editor to keep me abreast of some of the really fun-looking books outside of my preferred comfort zone. On that note, the Cybils blog reviews have begun running, and will continue throughout the award period (that is, until the winners are announced in February), so make sure to swing by and check out reviews of the nominated titles. I started by excerpting a review of easy reader King & Kayla and the Case of the Secret Code, and you can check that out here.

Meanwhile, Tanita is already queuing up reviews of Cybils Speculative Fiction nominees, so it's going to be fun times around here as I read her assessments and frantically start adding to my TBR pile.

No wonder we love fall so much...

Cybils Nominations Are Open!

Book lovers! It is that time of year! The time when we all hustle over to the Cybils website to nominate our favorite children's and YA publications of the past year for the 2017 Awards!

If you're new to the Cybils Awards, here's a brief intro:

The Cybils Awards aims to recognize the children’s and young adult authors and illustrators whose books combine the highest literary merit and popular appeal. If some la-di-dah awards can be compared to brussels sprouts, and other, more populist ones to gummy bears, we’re thinking more like organic chicken nuggets. We’re yummy and nutritious.

The nominations are OPEN TO THE PUBLIC (that's YOU!) from October 1-15, and you can nominate one title for each category. There are lots of categories and we really want to be able to recognize and plug the best books of the year for ALL genres and age ranges. Unfortunately, Audiobooks is on hiatus this year, and you'll find a couple of other minor changes, but with more than 10 categories, there are plenty of opportunities to send worthy book suggestions to our Round 1 judging panels. You can get all the relevant information right here.

Monday Miscellany, a.k.a I Don't Have a New Review

I guess it's time I admitted it to you all--there are times when I'm not actually reading YA books. Surprise! Over the past few weeks I read a couple of grown-up books instead: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (which won last year's National Book Award) and No Time Like the Present by Jack Kornfield, which was helpful for anxiety and stress and the like. I highly recommend it if you have any interest in mindfulness as a therapeutic practice. I wouldn't say I'm any GOOD at mindfulness, at meditation, or at stress relief as a general rule, but I think I'm better off having read the book. And, as a special bonus, both of these books were available in my library's ebook app!

I did run across a couple of items of interest, though, which I thought I would share. First, the program for this year's Kidlitosphere Conference in Hershey, PA has been finalized, with a ton of fantastic authors and presenters including keynote Rachel Renee Russell, author of Dork Diaries, Jordan Sonnenblick, Tracey Baptiste, Laura Atkins, and many many more.

Second, in the process of desperately googling ways to make my novel notes more coherent, I found a really cool resource for writers who use Evernote (I don't, but after this I'm thinking about it!). In honor of last year's NaNoWriMo, the Evernote blog did a post about several writer-oriented templates, from character worksheets to plotting outlines. They look really fun to play around with for those who a) use Evernote and b) like to fiddle with their notes and stuff.

As per usual for me these days, I don't think NaNoWriMo is in my future this year, due to work-related circumstances, but I am starting a new project...which is also good news!

Apply to Be a Cybils Judge!

The call for 2017 Cybils Awards judges is open! Bloggers, vloggers, Goodreads reviewers--any or all of those are welcome, as long as you have a love of kidlit, a passion for reading, and a discerning eye for the best of the best.

Judges for Audiobooks and Easy Reader/Early Chapter Books are especially wanted at the moment, so if you have experience with either of those, please apply. The contest relies on as many as 100+ volunteers every year, and can't exist without us. I've already thrown my hat into the ring for judging, and I'll be co-blog-editor again this year--and as perennial participants, Tanita and I can both vouch for the fact that it is one of the most fun ways to take part in the kidlit community and draw attention to the many worthy books out there.

Also, don't forget to register for KidLitCon in November! The program (and registration information) is available here. There are some amazing authors in the lineup, and a wide range of sessions on topics including STEM, Historical Fiction, reading development, activist books, and much more.

Welcome to the 2017 Cybils Awards!

A new Cybils year is already ramping up and getting ready to launch! And with a new year comes a new (well, refreshed) logo with nifty new color scheme. This year I decided to go with a sort of dark-magenta-and-orange, fall-ish look. I'll be helping out again as co-blogger with Melissa Fox of Book Nut, and both Tanita and I will most likely be applying to be judges again as well. It's a lot of work, but it's fun to be able to read a wide variety of worthy titles and try to bring some attention to them via our little corner of the blogiverse.

Stay tuned for the call for judges, and if you want to download the new logo, check this Cybils blog post for various shapes and sizes!

Toon Thursday Blast from the Past! Social Media Edition

Social media continues to find new ways of invading our time and brain space and making our lives more complicated and annoying, so I thought I'd bring this old chestnut out of the archives. This really IS never gonna happen!

Have a happy and hopefully productive writing week, everyone!

Call for Presenters: KidLitCon 2017, Hershey, PA

Just popping my head up from my imminent deadline to remind you that the Kidlitosphere Conference has released its official Call for Presenters!

You don't have to put together anything too formal (unless you want to), and any topics related to children's/YA literature, and/or blogging about said literature, are welcome. From the official post:

Repeat visits to past topics are welcome alongside new ideas. A few thoughts—we’ve never talked specifically about historical fiction (is there such a thing as “getting it right?”) or religion (books written for a specific audience, books specifically addressing social and cultural topics related to religion). There’s always room for conversations about class, race, disability, sex. gender, politics, and pictures!

Contact the organizers by August 1 with your ideas, and check out this post for more details. 

Have You Saved the Date for KidLitCon 2017?

Attention, bloggers! The 2017 Kidlitosphere Conference is going to be held November 3rd and 4th in Hershey, PA! The Land of Chocolate! Who would want to miss that? I don't want to miss it, although I might have to, due to some unforeseen travel this summer that has cleaned out my conference savings. (Don't feel too sorry for me...I'm visiting my husband while he attends a fellowship in Hawaii.)

The call for session proposals is going to be open any day now on the Kidlitosphere website, so start brainstorming. Sessions on diversity are always welcome, along with other topics of interest to kidlit bloggers and blogging writers. And, as always, we'll have some special author guests--see flyer at right!

Shelf Help: Are You Organized?

I found this delightful post via Scholastic talking about where and how their bloggers organize their bookshelves: alphabetically, by color (!!!), in a bookcase, in the nightstand, etc. That inspired me to take a picture of one of my bookcases and think about how I generally "organize" (ha ha) my book collection.

When I'm NOT otherwise too swamped to organize (and to be honest, most of the time I'm too swamped to organize--not pictured are the ancillary book piles on the floor), I seem to have come up with a system where I first group the books by overarching category, then within that category I alphabetize them. I have category groups for literary stuff, poetry, plays, old textbooks, children's/MG/YA (all one group), grown-up fiction, nonfiction, writing books, language books, and graphic novels. Within each of those, I usually try to keep them alphabetized by author's last name.

Oh, and I have one special stash of books right by my desk which are Frequently Used Titles such as the AP Stylebook and a Welsh dictionary.

Unfortunately (well, not for me, but unfortunately for anyone else), the groups themselves aren't in any particular order--but I did try to group together categories that make sense together. The children's/MG/YA books are in the same bookcase as the grown-up fiction books. Literary, poetry, and plays are in the same bookcase. And graphic novels and nonfiction are in the same case. Buuuut...old textbooks are crammed in with all the fiction, and writing books actually live in a couple of different spots. And then there's the pile of Books What People Done Lent Me That I Haven't Read Yet and the pile of Review Copies I Was Supposed to Read An Embarrassingly Long Time Ago and the box of Stuff to Donate.

And that's just the stuff in my office. Elsewhere in the house are other groupings for art books and travel books and random crap like old high school yearbooks, and stacks of books my husband bought for the purposes of prepping classes or going to seminars. We're definitely book people!

Toon Thursday: Writing Retreat Redux

...I don't know if it's "redux" so much as "rerun," but oh well. I'm going to a writing retreat this weekend (IN HAWAII!!) so it seems appropriate to repost this cartoon I did a while back:

I'm really hoping that "writing" slice is actually the majority of this trip. I am determined to finish this project! In the meantime, here's a really fun tidbit of news that landed in my inbox this week--share with any audiobook-loving teens you know:

SYNC: Free Audiobooks for Teens, a Summer-long Program Encouraging Literacy through Listening 

Portland, Maine, February 28, 2017– The SYNC Audiobooks for Teens program, sponsored by AudioFile Magazine and powered by OverDrive, kicks off its eighth year on April 27th. Authors represented include Daniel José Older, Franz Kafka, Ruta Sepetys, and Nikki Grimes. With parents, teachers, librarians, and teens looking for good media within easy access, SYNC is the perfect way to engage teens with new literature for their earbuds.

SYNC makes available two FREE audiobook downloads every week, to each and every registered listener, all summer. In 2017, 32 titles will be given away through the 16 week-long season. Teens, librarians, club leaders, and educators may sign up for email or text alerts and can learn more at www.audiobooksync.com.

ICYMI: The 2016 Cybils Award Winners

While we were all celebrating Valentine's Day/not celebrating Valentine's Day/lamenting the latest political news, there was another occurrence of note on February 14th: the final announcement of Cybils winners!

Over the past month and a half, the Round 2 judges have been busily reading and pondering the shortlists and coming to a decision about the ultimate winning titles for 2016. Over in the Graphic Novels category, we had TWO shortlists--one for Elementary/Middle Grade books and one for YA titles. I'll be posting my own impressions of the GN winners and finalists over the coming weeks, but in the meantime, here's a list of all the winning books (and click here for full descriptions of each one with links to buy):

• Audiobooks: The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, the Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz 
• Board Books: Cityblock (Alphablock) by Christopher Franceschelli, illustrated by Peskimo 
• Early Chapter Books: Mango & Bambang: The Not-a-Pig (Book One) by Polly Faber 
• Easy Reader: Snail and Worm: Three Stories About Two Friends by Tina Kugler 
• Elementary Non-Fiction: Giant Squid by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Eric Rohmann 
• Elementary/Middle Grade Graphic Novels: Lowriders to the Center of the Earth (Book 2) (Lowriders in Space) by Cathy Camper and Raúl the Third 
• Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction: Shadow Magic by Joshua Khan 
• Fiction Picture Books: A Hungry Lion, or A Dwindling Assortment of Animals by Lucy Ruth Cummins 
• Juvenile Non-Fiction: Some Writer!: The Story of E. B. White by Melissa Sweet 
• Middle School Fiction: Ghost (Track) by Jason Reynolds 
• Middle Grade Non-Fiction: Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story by Caren Stelson 
• Poetry: The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary by Laura Shovan 
• Young Adult Fiction: Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys 
• Young Adult Graphic Novels: March: Book Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell 
• Young Adult Non-Fiction: Every Falling Star: The True Story of How I Survived and Escaped North Korea by Sungju Lee and Susan McClelland 
• Young Adult Speculative Fiction: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff 

Bonus: the Cybils got a wonderful mention of genre winners and finalists in Locus Magazine! We're not worthy, we're not worthy!

10 Years Ago Today....

I was reading today's YA newsletter from Book Riot, which contains an article with a selection of YA titles from 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 years ago--and it was interesting to see that some of the YA books and authors I most closely related to some 25-30 years ago were actually ones published closer to when I was born, as well as the ones published while I was a tween/teen reader. It's worth taking a look at the article to see which ones you remember!

Then, that inspired me to check out THIS very blog to see what was happening 10 years ago today. Lo and behold, I posted something 10 years ago today, and it was called Obsessions, Links, and News Bits. I used to post a lot more random thoughts and "in case you missed it" links to articles and other blogs. That was before the blogosphere became akin to a rapidly expanding universe spinning endlessly off into infinity. Anyway, in that post I wrote this little tidbit--ah, the memories:

I realized that my personal book-related obsession these days is author photos and jacket bios. One of my favorite author photos is one of Carol Plum-Ucci's, which looks sort of like this only she's lounging on some stairs with a cup of coffee looking like a cranky writer up too early. I actually get sort of annoyed when there isn't an author photo or at least an informative bio. In my head I plan out what sort of author photo I'd want to have, and what I'd write in my bio; I debate whether I will keep with my current plan of having a byline of S.J. Stevenson instead of my full name, and how much information to release to my reading public. Of course, this is contingent on having something book-length actually published. I'm still working on that... 

Well, A) I actually found the author photo in question on Amazon, right here, so you can see what I was referring to, and B) heh, now that I actually HAVE an author photo and bio I'm already thinking ahead to a new one...and C) clearly I did NOT keep with my plan of being S.J. Stevenson--so much for plans! But it was almost exactly 4 years later that my first book came out, so I guess I could be thinking about positive January-related associations like that instead of...yeah.