Celebrated Milwaukee children’s book author and illustrator Lois Ehlert, winner of a Caldecott Honor Book award and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year award for two of her many books will be featured at Janesville's Rotary Botanical Gardens' Super Kids program scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 18, from 1 p.m.-4 p.m. The event will highlight Lois's book, Planting a Rainbow. The event goes from 1-4 and includes a garden/story walk with Lois signing books from 1:30-2:30. The Rotary Botanical Gardens is at 1455 Palmer Dr. in Janesville.
News From the Children's Corner
Following are details about a Carthage College event, “Wisconsin Women Write for Children”, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on May 14 at the Women’s Club of Wisconsin
Wisconsin Women Write for Children Event
Come for desserts and coffee in a beautiful historic mansion.
Barbara Joosse, JoAnn Early Macken, Lisa Moser
The Woman’s Club of Wisconsin
(Free valet parking available)When:
Tuesday May 14th
Doors open at 6:00 pm
Program is from 6:30-8:30 pm
Registration fee is $15, with $5 for students.
Registration
Registration is open. Walk-ins
are welcome at the event itself
Make checks payable to The Center for Children’s Literature
Mail to: Carthage College, 2001 Alford Park Drive, Kenosha, WI 53140
Jstewig@carthage.edu 262-552-5480
The first of each month, members of Wisconsin’s chapter of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators announce their good news of the previous month, generally good reviews, honors and awards, and newly published work. Here in their own words is their news from the month of April:
JoAnn Early Macken
In addition to the Wisconsin Women Write for Children event, I'll be teaching picture book classes in both Milwaukee and Madison over the next couple of months. Here are the details: Writing a Children's Picture Book, 5 Thursday evenings starting May 9 at UW-Milwaukee School of Continuing Education (downtown in the Grand Avenue mall). Details and registration info are at http://www4.uwm.edu/sce/course.cfm?id=24087 Children's Picture Books: Write and Submit Your Stories, Jun 17-21, 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. each day at UW-Madison. More info is at http://continuingstudies.wisc.edu/lsa/writing/wbtl/wbtl-sessions.htm Ann Angel There are also some interesting writing courses available this summer at Mount Mary College that children's writers might find appealing. These include a six-week Writing Healing Stories workshop, a course for fiction and nonfiction writers called Pushing Boundaries which will be taught by Madison's Chris Mohar, and a picture book workshop that is in-person on Wed evenings and includes an online component. For more information, you can go directly to the website: http://www.mtmary.edu/summerschool.htm or email me personally. For kids, RedOak writers summer writing camp is again offering the camp on Mount Mary's campus. For more information on that camp, please go to http://www.mtmary.edu/camps.htm Pat Zietlow Miller I've sold two picture books. One, The Quickest Kid in Clarksville, sold to Chronicle Books. It's fiction, but it's inspired by Olympic sprinter Wilma Rudolph. The other, tentatively titled Roads, sold to Little, Brown. It's a lyrical look at the roads we take in life -- both literal and metaphorical. Dori Chaconas I've been fortunate enough to be offered a contract from Viking for a tenth book in the easy-reader series, Cork and Fuzz. Emily Kokie Personal Effects is a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award (the winner will be announced in June). As part of the celebration leading up to the award presentation, on May 22 I will be doing a reading in Chicago with 8 other finalists. Details: http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Lambda-Literary-Awards-finalist-reading-May-22/42576.html Miranda Paul My second picture book went to auction, and my agent and I have accepted an offer from Neal Porter at Neal Porter Books! Roaring Brook and Neal Porter Books have produced some of my very favorite picture books, and this is a significant honor for me. I'm also proud of the fact that it's a rhyming book, and non-fiction! Kate Heling Debbie (Hembrook) and I are pleased to announce that our picture book CLOTHESLINE CLUES TO JOBS PEOPLE DO (Charlesbridge) was named to the 2013 Best Children's Books of the Year list by the Children's Book Committee. We've also recently received word that this book will be coming out in paperback in Spring, 2014. And even more exciting........we've been offered a contract for CLOTHESLINE CLUES TO SPORTS PEOPLE PLAY, publication date of August, 2015. We anticipate that the new CLOTHESLINE CLUES book will have the same illustrator, Andy Davies from the UK. Janet Halfmann
Eggs 1, 2, 3: Who Will the Babies Be? (Blue Apple Books) won the Lupine Picture Book Honor Award from the Maine Library Association. The award recognizes an outstanding contribution to children's literature of Maine.
Plus, Little Skink's Tail is on the Just Read, Florida! 2013 Summer Recommended Reading List for K-3. Becky Wojahn My news is that MALCOLM AT MIDNIGHT won a 2013 Friends of American Writers Literary Award (http://www.fawchicago.org/)
Kashmira Sheth
I have a book signing coming up for Tiger in My Soup and I hope some of you
can make it. It is on the 14th of May at 7:00 PM at Barnes and Noble west (in Madison).
Michael Kress-Russick
Cricket has asked me to generate four illustrations for a piece of historical fiction to be run in their 75th anniversary issue (Sept).
Please check back after the CWW Awards Banquet next Saturday, May 11. I hope to be able to post some pictures from it on this blog. Meantime, please visit the CWW website at www.wiswriters.org.
June Writing Events
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators member Ann Angel posted the following on the Wisconsin chapter's listserve: There are a number of June events coming up that might be of interest to writers and illustrators. They each sound so interesting and so I thought I'd put together a roundup. The Southeast Wisconsin Book Festival will be June 15-16 at the University of Wisconsin Waukesha. This year's theme is Freedom to Read. I'll be on a panel on censorship on Saturday at 4. But the keynote is Friday night with NYT bestselling author Tawni O’Dell at 6 p.m. Friday, June 15. O’Dell’s remarks will be followed by an interview with Jean Feraca, long-time host of Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Here On Earth.” There will be an SCBWI table and some children's events including a high school essay contest. For more information, you can go to http://www.sewibookfest.com/news/. This is also the site and Saturday is the date of a Mystery Writers daylong workshop for folks who might be interested in writing mysteries. If you live in Racine, Barnes and Noble will be hosting children's writer/illustrator booksignings on June 16 as part of the Hispanic Business and Professional Association. Lois Ehlert will be signing her illustrated picture books and I'll be there that morning signing copies of Janis Joplin ["Rise Up Singing"]. Martha Merrell's Books in Waukesha, which has been a longtime supporter of local writers, will also be hosting a number of outdoor booksignings as part of music on the square events and Guitartown celebrations on Friday evenings. I'll be signing books at 4:30 on June 22 and if there are writers out there who have musically themed children's books, I'd be happy to arrange a group signing. Just email me offlist. If you have middle schoolers who love to write, you might be interested in sending them to RedOak Writers' summer writing camps. While the weeklong day camp to be held at Mount Mary College in Milwaukee and the camp at Sharon Wilson Center in Brookfield have waiting lists, there's still room in the camp held at Ten Chimneys. For more information, go to http://redoakyoungwriters.info/ JoAnn Macken, our fearless leader, is in the middle of facilitating a graduate student picture book workshop that filled within two weeks, at Mount Mary College. And she's posted on SCBWI about the one day Picture Book Workshop, taught by Liz Garton Scanlon, to be held on July 21. Mount Mary College has graciously opened its campus and rooms to SCBWI members for this event. Here is the link to the registration form: http://www.scbwi.org/Regional-Chapters.aspx?R=51&sec=News&g=931