A picture book biography often focuses on its subject’s childhood but A Tulip in Winter spans Maud’s whole life (1903-1970). When Maud was young, she loved playing piano. But before long, a condition she was born with, later known to be rheumatoid arthritis, worsened. Her hands grew too bent and her fingers too stiff to continue. Her […]
March
07
HER WHOLE LIFE IN A BOOK FOR CHILDREN – WHY? WRITING A TULIP IN WINTER: A STORY ABOUT FOLK ARTIST MAUD LEWIS BY KATHY STINSON
posted by CBethM
March
06
Making Supermoms!: A Conversation about Collaboration by Heather Lang and Jamie Harper
posted by CBethM
We’ve been friends for thirty years and critique partners for almost as long. When we first discussed collaborating on Supermoms!, we had the same basic idea—to make a fun and fascinating book about moms in the wild. But neither of us had a clear vision of how best to do that. We believed we could […]
March
03
Making Writing More Cool in School by Polly Holyoke
posted by CBethM
Because my first children’s book, The Neptune Project, was placed on several state lists, I have been invited to visit hundreds of schools all over the United States. A middle school teacher for many years, I always offered to teach writing workshops. While conducting those workshops, I had a firsthand opportunity to witness the remarkable […]
February
28
I Promise to Tell the Truth by Chrystal D. Giles
posted by CBethM
The title of author is very often interchangeable with storyteller. It’s a title that seems to be automatically bestowed on authors and one that I find myself quietly afraid of. While one doesn’t have to be a professional storyteller to tell stories there is a certain something that we expect from people who arestorytellers—depth, humor, […]
February
24
The Power of Persistence by Caitlin DeLems
posted by CBethM
When I received an email invitation to write a blog for the Nerdy Book Club, I didn’t hesitate. “YES!” I said to myself, and pressed “send”—and almost immediately self-doubt knocked on my door. Not only had I never written a blog post, but as a debut author, what could I contribute as meaningful content to […]
February
21
The Physics of Writing by Lisa Westberg Peters
posted by CBethM
All of us – writers as well – are obliged to obey the laws of physics. In a whimsical or metaphorical sense, even our writing projects follow these laws. I discovered this as I worked on my children’s poetry book, PUSH-PULL MORNING: Dog-powered poems about matter and energy. Let me explain: Force is an influence […]
February
10
FINDING INSPIRATION IN EVERYDAY MOMENTS by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
posted by CBethM
I was having a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad morning when the spark for A Good Day Can Grow came to me. It was a wake-up-with-a-headache, step-in-cat-puke, discover-we-were-out-of-coffee kind of morning. I drove to the local Starbucks drive-thru to get more coffee and was rudely cut off by another driver on my way there. A […]
February
09
An Illustrious Collaboration: Sharing A TAKE-CHARGE GIRL BLAZES A TRAIL TO CONGRESS with Rebecca Gibbon by Gretchen Woelfle
posted by CBethM
In my next life, I’d like to be an author/illustrator. In this life I haven’t a clue. I’m a word person all the way down. That said, I’m in awe of what artists have done with my words. Case in point: Rebecca Gibbon, Illustrator of my latest book, A Take-Charge Girl Blazes A Trail to […]
February
07
FINDING THE PERSON BEHIND THE ACHIEVEMENT: THE ‘WOW’ OF RESEARCH by Jan Lower
posted by CBethM
One of the best parts of researching and writing my new picture book, The Brilliant Calculator: How Mathematician Edith Clarke Helped Electrify America (illustrated by Susan Reagan and coming in March from Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers), is that I knew virtually nothing about Edith Clarke. Even though she was the first female electrical […]
February
06
Writing About Old People for Young People by Elana K. Arnold
posted by CBethM
Last year, I had the great joy of introducing Harriet Wermer to the world. In the opening chapters of Just Harriet, with her mother on bedrest and her father busy with work travel, Harriet was sent to spend the summer with her grandmother on Marble Island. Harriet is not a kid who likes things to be decided for […]
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