SLJ's Day of Dialog
By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 5/29/2009
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Kid Lit Bloggers (from left) Laura Lutz (Pinot and Prose), Liz Burns (A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy), Cheryl Klein (Brooklyn Arden), Author Libba Bray, and Betsy Bird (A Fuse #8 Production). |
The answer is increasingly, yes. Just a few years ago, it was inconceivable that someone like Bird, a children’s librarian at the New York Public Library and the voice behind A Fuse #8 Production, would find herself quoted on the galleys of Fran Slayton’s When the Whistle Blows (Philomel, 2009) or Micol Ostow’s So Punk Rock (Flux, 2009).
But can influential bloggers—who now have their own award (the Cybils), annual conference, and, according to Kidlitosphere Central, number close to 200—actually sway book purchasing decisions? Burns, whose extremely popular blog A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy is read by hundreds of librarians, says she still relies on professional journals like Kikrus. VOYA, and SLJ to help her with book buying and never makes a purchase based on a blog review because they’re solely personal opinions.
But Cheryl Klein, a Scholastic editor who blogs about books, publishing, and writing on Brooklyn Arden, says what fellow bloggers write does carry weight. “As a reader, it influences me when friends and people I respect love a book.” Klein also admits that publishers clearly enjoy the free publicity generated on these blogs, but at the same time struggle with being able to “control the message”—or any negative publicity—when it comes to books that have yet to be released and might have major changes.
One of the great things about being a kid lit blogger, adds Burns, is that a growing number of authors now join
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Panelists (from left) Panelists Jon Scieszka, Francisca Goldsmith, and Rose Brock, and moderator Tim Ditlow. |
But that can have its drawbacks, especially when an author responds to a less than glowing comment about his book. “Sending letters is like crossing the line and can make [the blogger] uncomfortable,” says author Libba Bray. “You’d never send a note to a professional reviewer.”
Books, blogs, technology, and reluctant readers were the main topics of discussion at School Library Journal’s Day of Dialog on May 28, which brought together close to 200 publishers, vendors, authors, illustrators, and librarians at the Brooklyn Public Library to talk about the hottest issues facing their professions.
One of those includes how technology has expanded the fictional world of children’s publishing—and “39 Clues” (Scholastic) and next fall’s The Amanda Project (HarperCollins) are prime examples of multiplatform novels that appeal to today’s kids. In these cases, books aren't enough—they must also have a Web, gaming, and social networking component.
Scholastic editor David Levithan explains that with the release of the first 39 Clues book in September 2008,
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Panelists from left David Levithan, Lisa Von Drasek, Peter Lerangis, Jennifer Cowen, and Lisa Holton. |
Fans of this new form of storytelling can look forward to the multimedia YA series The Amanda Project (HarperCollins) being released this fall, about a new girl at school who goes missing. The brainchild of Lisa Holton, who left Scholastic last year to launch the startup Fourth Story Media, “The Amanda Project” is an interactive mystery series that includes a Web site, games, a social networking platform, blogs, music, and merchandise.
Audio books may not be new, but award-winning author Jon Scieszka is hoping to draw more reluctant readers—especially boys—with an unveiling late this summer of Guys Listen, an extension of his hugely successful Web-based literacy initiative, Guys Read.
Speaking at a panel with Rose Block, a Texas media specialist in the Independent School District in Coppell who helped Scieszka devise Guys Listen, and audio book expert Francisca Goldsmith, of the Halifax Public
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Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley (left) was interviewed by Brooklyn Public Library's Barbara Genco. |
Audio books make boys focus on listening, which strengthens their processing of auditory information and lengthens their attentions spans, says Block.
The plan is get librarians to promote audio literature like they do books—in summer reading programs, book lists, and Web sites, says Goldsmith
“Guys think [audio books] are cheating,” says Scieszka, the National Ambassador of Literature for Young People. “But it’s similar to the discussion of graphic novels. This is legitimate—the Ambassador said it’s OK.”
Like Guys Read, Guys Listen will offer audio books from a range of publishers broken down by subject and age level.
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Guest speaker, award-winning illustrator Jerry Pinkney. |
And as the day’s guest speaker, award-winning illustrator Jerry Pinkney talked about the creative process behind this latest work, a wordless picture book called The Lion & the Mouse (Little, Brown), based on an Aesop’s fable.
