The Weekly 411 (10/4/19)

© Codi Hickish

Oct. 4, 2019 vol. 39

The Weekly 411 gathers all the links added to Kidlit411 each week. To receive this post by email, sign up for our email updates. Are you on Facebook? Join our Kidlit411 group for conversations & camaraderie. This week's illustration is by Codi Hickish.

COVER REVEAL

We have a cover reveal! Check out THE NIGHT BAAFORE CHRISTMAS, by Dawn Young, illustrated by Pablo Pino (Worthy Kids Hachette Book Group), on sale now.

About the book: It's Christmas Eve and Bo can't sleep, so he starts counting sheep. But when the sheep get a glimpse of the Christmas goodies, they scatter, wreaking holiday mayhem all over the house. "Sheep 4 gnaws the stockings--leaves holes in the toes; 5 swallows some garland, and ribbon, and bows!" With a house full of sheep and a mess to clean, will Bo get to sleep before Santa comes? Find out in this hilarious story of a night before Christmas gone baa-dly wrong.

About the author: Dawn Young graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, and later with an MBA. For years, Dawn worked as an engineer and, later, a manager at a large aerospace company, until her creative side called her to pursue her dream of writing children’s books. Dawn is also a math enthusiast. When she’s not busy writing and reading, she can be found doing math problems, sometimes just because... In high school, Dawn’s dream was to have a math equation named after her, but now, she believes having her name on the cover of books is a million times better! Dawn lives with her husband, three children and golden retriever in sunny Arizona. www.dawnyoungbooks.com

About the illustrator: Pablo Pino was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He grew up watching cartoons, playing football and drawing a lot. These days, he doesn´t watch as much TV and only plays football once a week, but still has the joy of painting every day. What he enjoys the most is illustrating books for children and teenagers. Besides the 40 published books Pablo's illustrated, he also does characters designs, board games, and collaborates on schoolbooks and magazines with various worldwide publishing companies. Pablo is self-taught and his illustrations are mostly computer drawn, but he always adds textures that he makes with pencils, crayons, acrylics and pretty much any material that lets him get messy like when he was a child. http://pablopinodib.wix.com/pablopino

AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR SPOTLIGHTS

We are excited to feature author Rosiee Thor and her debut YA novel, TARNISHED ARE THE STARS (Scholastic Press), out Oct. 15, 2019. Enter to win a copy!

Jacket art © 2019 by Vault 49 

Jacket design by Ya a Jaskoll

We are excited to feature author Pippa Chorley and her debut picture book, COUNTING SHEEP, illustrated by Danny Deeptown (Marshall Cavendish), coming out Jan. 7, 2020. Pippa is giving away TWO copies of her book, one for our UK readers and one for our US readers. Enter to win a copy!

On the first of each month in 2019, we feature an illustrator who won or placed in our Kidlit411 Banner Contest, and we switch our website banner and Facebook page cover image. This week, we featured Carolyn Le for her design of October's banner.

© Carolyn Le

SPECIAL BOOK GIVEAWAY

We also have a special giveaway this week of two early readers, THE KOOKY KINKAJOU and THE TASTY TREAT, by Tracey Hecht, illustrated by Josie Yee (Grow & Read Early Reader; Fabled Films Press, 2019). Enter in the Rafflecopter widget below.

THE KOOKY KINKAJOU (A Grow & Read Early Reader, Level 3; Sept. 2019) Tobin, Bismark, and Dawn are bored. There's nothing to do! So when Karina the kinkajou comes along, she gives them a lesson on using their imaginations. Includes bonus Nocturnals fun facts with a glossary of kooky words (Ages 6-8) Themes include friendship, imagination, and accepting new ideas.

THE TASTY TREAT (A Grow & Read Early Reader, Level 1; Oct 1) In The Tasty Treat, Dawn the fox wakes up and goes looking for her friends, Tobin the pangolin and Bismark the sugar glider, to share a tasty treat—a pomelo! Includes bonus pronunciation guide (Ages 4-6). Themes include friendship, sharing, and problem solving.

Visit the Nocturnal Worlds Online to download printable activities including makerspace crafts, sight word games, The Nocturnals kindness game, language arts educator guides, and more.

Tracey Hecht has written, directed, and produced for film. The American Booksellers Association chose the first book in her critically acclaimed middle grade series, The Nocturnals: The Mysterious Abductions, as a Kids’ Indie Next List pick. This year, her Grow & Read early reader book, The Chestnut Challenge, was given a Mom’s Choice Gold Award. Tracey currently splits her time between New York City and Oquossoc, Maine, with her husband, four children, and dog, Penny.

Josie Yee is an award winning illustrator specializing in children's books. She lives in New York City with her daughter, Ana, and their cat, Dude. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For Writers

The Three Words That Almost Ruined Me as a Writer: Show, Don't Tell (an alternate view on the subject)

Critique Groups

Finding and Building Your Writing Community

Submissions: Agents & Editors

Why Don't People Want to Rep My Book?

Conferences, Workshops & Retreats in 2020

Mar. 27-29 The VCFA Writing Novels for Young People Retreat A working weekend for serious writers of MG & YA books. The retreat offers lectures and discussions interspersed with blocks of unstructured time to work, with opportunities for feedback from our faculty via one-on-one meetings or workshop. Participants and faculty share meals, and evenings are filled with readings, a lecture from our VCFA alumnx guest, and an open mic session. (Montpelier, VT)  Application opens Nov. 1, 2019.

May 8-10 Big Sur in Cape Cod Sponsored by Andrea Brown Literary Agency, a working conference for children's writers (PB to YA), where two industry professionals mentor you in very small group sessions where one-on-one feedback is provided. Writers will get the chance to mingle and discuss their works with editors, agents, and published authors throughout the weekend. (Cape Cod, MA)

Dec. 4-6 Big Sur Conference Sponsored by Andrea Brown Literary Agency, a working conference for children's writers (PB to YA), where two industry professionals mentor you in very small group sessions where one-on-one feedback is provided. Writers will get the chance to mingle and discuss their works with editors, agents, and published authors throughout the weekend. (Big Sur, CA)

Marketing & Creating a Platform

Book Marketing: A Blueprint for your Book Launch

Contests & Awards

Oct. 7-11 Kidlit Fall Writing Frenzy

• What: submit your short (up to 200 words) kid lit poem, story, or piece about one of the picture prompts listed in the rules
• Prize: over 50 donated prizes, including PB critiques, first chapter MG & YA critiques, books, more

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