Staff Post: Executive Editor Nancy Mercado

It’s been said before, but as an editor, sometimes you are reading a manuscript looking for a reason to say no. By far the best part of the job, however, is when a manuscript comes along and beckons you. It says, read a little bit more, come along with me, for I have a story to tell you. And that’s how I felt when reading Birthmarked (then called The Baby Quota) for the first time. I felt beckoned. I felt compelled. I talked my husband’s ear off about it. I described the plot at length at a crowded dinner party. In short, I became very annoying to be around.

So, what was it that so drew me into this manuscript? Mostly it was the main character Gaia who was so brave, and yet up against many obstacles. In the first chapter, Gaia has to do something unthinkable: she helps deliver a baby and then she has to take that child away from its mother and hand it over to unknown persons within the Enclave. I just had to know what Gaia thought about that, and how she was going to deal with the moral implications of her action. And then when Gaia meets Leon, the brooding soldier who grew up behind the walls of the Enclave, I just had to know what, if anything, might transpire between them. I was drawn into the book because I wanted to know what would happen next*; it was that simple and that wonderful.

It was clear that this manuscript was sticking with me and that I needed to make an offer. But what kind of offer was the question? The agent told me that there were other houses interested in Birthmarked, and then he sent out a note telling me that he’d be holding a best bid auction. There’s a certain amount of hedging your bets and gambling involved in a best bid situation. Will other editors go crazy high in the amount they offer? Or will they play it conservative? You just never know. My take on making offers has always been that even if I worked for the richest and largest publishing company in the world (which I don’t) I’m still going to try and make what I think is both an attractive and reasonable offer. But I also feel strongly that enthusiasm goes a long way, and that something else often needs to be added to the offer, something to show the true depths of my love for the book to both author and agent. 

In this case, I decided to send the agent an orange. (I go all out, don’t I?) There’s a moment in the book when one of the characters gives the gift of an orange, and I was really moved by the hope that this simple gesture provided. And so I bought an orange, placed it in a box with the offer, and decorated the box with the code that appears significantly several times throughout the book. Then I hand-delivered the box to the agent and hoped for the best. The next day, I had my answer. Roaring Brook won Birthmarked, and I was about to embark on a wonderful journey with Gaia and her  thoughtful, talented creator. 

And now comes the nail-biting part: will others respond as I did to Gaia’s story? Will they feel as beckoned? Will they be so excited they’ll wear out their welcome as they enthusiastically spread the word? I can only hope so.

In the meantime, may I offer you an orange?

*For more on this idea, read this essay by children’s author John H. Ritter about how editors are hungry for stories.

ALAMW Wrap-Up

This year, ALAMW was in Boston.  Let’s just take a look at a typical “January in Boston” scene:

All jokes aside, as always, ALAMW was buzzing with all sorts of awards and accolades...   

Here is a digest of Macmillan's: 

Schneider Family Book Award, Picture Book : Django by Bonnie Christensen (Neal Porter Books, Roaring Brook Press)

Born into a travelling gypsy family, young Django Reinhardt taught himself guitar at an early age. He was soon acclaimed as the "Gypsy Genius" and "Prodigy Boy," but one day his world changed completely when a fire claimed the use of his fretting hand. Folks said Django would never play again, but with passion and perserverance he was soon setting the world's concert stages ablaze.

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YALSA Excellence Nonfiction Award, Winner: Charles and Emma by Deborah Heiligman (Henry Holt)

Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species, his revolutionary tract on evolution and the fundamental ideas involved, in 1859. Nearly 150 years later, the theory of evolution continues to create tension between the scientific and religious communities. Challenges about teaching the theory of evolution in schools occur annually all over the country. This same debate raged within Darwin himself, and played an important part in his marriage: his wife, Emma, was quite religious, and her faith gave Charles a lot to think about as he worked on a theory that continues to spark intense debates.

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Michael L. Printz: Honor Book Charles and Emma (see above)

Batchelder Honor: Eidi by Bodil Bredsdorff; Translated by Kathryn Mahaffy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

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Robert F. Sibert Honor Book: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers)

“When it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can’t sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, ‘This is not right.’” – Claudette Colvin
On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her classmates and dismissed by community leaders. Undaunted, a year later she dared to challenge segregation again as a key plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle, the landmark case that struck down the segregation laws of Montgomery and swept away the legal underpinnings of the Jim Crow South.
Based on extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin and many others, Phillip Hoose presents the first in-depth account of an important yet largely unknown civil rights figure, skillfully weaving her dramatic story into the fabric of the historic Montgomery bus boycott and court case that would change the course of American history.

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Newbery Honor: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly (Henry Holt)

Newbury Honor: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers)

 Congrats to all! A full list of ALA awards can be found here

The Heights

Theirs was a love that would last forever

With a tagline like this, and a title like that, you can probably guess what this re-imagined classic is, well, re-imagining.  Accomplished and well-versed YA novelist Brian James tells the story of Henry and Catherine Earnshaw.  Although raised in the same family as brother and sister, their relationship is far from that of a pair of siblings.  They fall in love, and vow to always be together.  But everything changes when Mr. Earnshaw dies and his real son, Hindley, gains control of the family. Furiously jealous, Hindley never accepted Henry as a true brother. As he tries to sever Henry from Catherine, the violent rage Henry has kept barely controlled bubbles to the surface. And no one is safe from his wrath. 

For all of you Bronte fans out there, or for anyone looking for an intriguing read, check out The Heights, on sale this week. 

We recently asked Brian James what got him interested in taking a closer look at Wuthering Heights with a contemporary setting, and here is what he had to say:

When I approached Wuthering Heights with an idea of updating the story, one aspect of the novel that struck me was how the relationship between the two main characters felt very much like a teenage romance. At least, it resembled most of my teenage romances—meaningful and unfulfilled. I thought its timeless tale of doomed love would translate into a powerful story for today’s teen audience.

One of the ways I went about updating the story was by giving the two characters a voice. The original novel is told in third person by an observer of the main characters’ love. I’ve found this causes many readers to choose a side in their relationship, faulting one or the other when fate, poor timing, and miscommunication are the real impediments to their happiness. By sharing Catherine and Henry’s thoughts and allowing readers to view situations through their eyes, I think both characters become more relatable and therefore it is harder to say one or the other is responsible for spoiling their relationship.

Both characters make the mistake of assuming they know what the other is thinking. I believe this is something we are all guilty of to some extent when in love. By the time we learn how inaccurate our guessing can be, it’s often too late. Catherine and Henry fall victim to this fate in The Heights. My hope is, teen readers will recognize the mistakes made by these characters and realize that openness and honesty in a relationship can go a long way in preventing heartache.

If you’ve read Wuthering Heights, whether you were forced to in High School English, or have a dog-eared copy that you reference monthly, everyone should have something to say about high school romances.  What is it about the age/maturity that makes the relationships feel so “meaningful”, but “unfulfilled” at the same time?

Poetry Sunday

 A Nursery Romance

Emily Beanbag
fell in love with Frederick Floursack.
She gazed at him from the nursery windowsill
and he at her from the clothesline,
where he undulated emptily:
Van de Water’s Best.
And then she wept.  What destiny awaited him?
A mechanic’s nose rag?
To stuff a shed window in November’s sleet?
Her own father, having lost his beans,
had ended as a polisher of doorknobs.
Emily shrank into herself as the Mistress
took the clothespins off Frederick
and dropped him in the laundry basket.
Now all Emily could see was his crumpled V.

Four days and four nights passed.
Emily was used to being thrown about
and even liked sliding down walls
if she hadn’t been thrown so hard
her stitches ached,
but she wasn’t used to feeling things as heavily
as if someone had filled her with BB shot.
But on the morning of the fifth day
a package came, and in it
was a handsome pillow with a thick red fringe
all around it and in the center his—
oh his! bright blue star
and on the back Van De Water’s Best!
and nestled in the tissue paper all around him!
five little beanbags!  And so Frederick
and Emily and their five little beanbags
lived happily ever after, all huddled together
in a corner of the big brown chair by the window—
except for the Dismally Hairy Time
when a new dog used to sneak in and sleep on them
during the long hot summer afternoons. 

Poem from Emily Stew, by Thomas Rockwell

Saturday Sketch post

Our Saturday sketch post comes to us from Matthew Cordell, author of Trouble Gum.

 

Earliest studies from the earliest version of the story.

Later roughs for the final story idea. 

Color test for the book’s pink/gray palette.  (I was big into old school skateboarding around that time.)

Finalized sketch for color and look of Ruben and Julius.