Good News Day Tuesday: An Interview with Debut Author Tara Lazar (in celebration of her recently released picture book, THE MONSTORE!)

Happy Good News Day Tuesday! Today I am thrilled to be celebrating with debut picture book author, Tara Lazar.

Not only is Tara an incredibly gifted picture book author (with two more upcoming picture books in addition to THE MONSTORE!), she is also an incredibly giving, helpful and talented member of the kidlit community. And she is the founder of the super-awesome PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) which I'm sure I will be blogging about as November approaches!

Hope you enjoy this informative interview with Tara!:

Go Outside the Rhymes: A Video With J.Patrick Lewis

My published (and soon-to-be-published) picture books are both written in rhyme. And I have published several rhyming poems in magazines as well. But when I was a teacher, I always encouraged my young writers NOT to write in rhyme. This is often good advice for beginning adult writers as well.

Rhyming is hard work. Especially if you want to do it well. And it is important to do it well. (As I have such fun teaching young readers and writers during my "Rhyme Crime Time" workshop where we investigate crimes of rhyme.)

So I absolutely loved this Reading Rockets video with the incredible children's poet, J. Patrick Lewis::


 


Hope you enjoyed it too!

p.s. Please make sure to visit my critique group's blog, The Paper Wait, for a cover reveal of Robin Constantine's upcoming YA novel, THE PROMISE OF AMAZING! And for a chance to win one of two advanced reader copies! Robin is an amazing author, so be sure to check it out!

Good News Day Tuesday: Interview with Three Authors Who Are in Highlights this Month!

Happy Good News Day Tuesday! After my post yesterday about how wonderful magazines are for beginning readers, I'm so excited to be celebrating with three (yes, three!) authors who are all published this month in magazines published by the Highlights magazine family. Highlights is amazing and these authors are amazing too!

Hope you enjoy this interview with Jeanne Kaufman (JK),  Jody Jensen Shaffer (JJS),and Deborah Holt Williams (DHW)! I'm so excited to be celebrating their good news today. Please enjoy the insights they give into writing for children's magazines!:

Good News Tuesday: Interview with Lisa Kahn Schnell, a Debut Nonfiction Author

So excited to be celebrating Lisa Kahn Schnell,
who just signed a contract with  Charlesbridge!

Happy Good News Day Tuesday! Today I'm so excited to celebrate with Lisa Kahn Schnell who just signed a contract for her first picture book! Congratulations, Lisa!

Lisa was kind enough to agree to do an interview where she shares wonderful information about her book,  her writing process and the unique benefits and challenges of writing nonfiction for kids. (And some wonderful information about horseshoe crabs too! :o) )

Please enjoy Lisa's very thoughtful answers!

Good News Day Tuesday: Book Launch for The Emerald Ring by Dorine White (includes an author interview!)

Please note: This very happy new feature was scheduled far in advance of yesterday's tragedy. My heart goes out to those in Oklahoma. Sending love, thoughts and prayers...

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So I renamed Monday, "Keep Reading Fun Day", and now I'm renaming Tuesday, "Good News Day Tuesday". (Can you tell I write rhyming picture books? :o) ) Every Tuesday, I'm going to try to share some good news from around the kidlit community, so we can celebrate with our fellow authors and illustrators.

And today, we're going to celebrate with (drumroll please)....

Dorine White!

I had the pleasure of meeting Dorine at the amazing Western Washington SCBWI conference I attended recently, where she told me the exciting story of her upcoming debut novel, THE EMERALD RING.

Since tomorrow night (5/22) is Dorine's book launch (at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park at 7:00), I thought her wonderful book news would make a perfect first bit of cheer.

So here's a brief interview with Dorine: