Author Tommy Greenwald on Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading

You can go broke trying to get your kids to read.

Seriously. I know I almost did.

My three boys—Charlie, Joe and Jack—are now in high school, doing reasonably well. But when they were in middle school, they all fought me tooth and nail about reading. They were not fans of books. Trips to the library or bookstore were a festival of rolling eyes and shaking heads. The only way I could get them to read was by buying them non-book-related items: everything from food to video games to pets (an adorable little iguana named Leo).

According to my calculations, I’ve bought them 5,987 milkshakes, which adds up, roughly, to 459 milkshakes per book.

Then one day, while we were at Swanky Frank’s sucking down our umpteenth fries-and-black-and-white combos (I couldn’t let them eat alone, could I?), it suddenly occurred to me that there had to be a children’s book out there written specifically for book-haters.  But when I looked into it, I couldn’t really find anything. There were tons of books for kids with reading disabilities, and plenty of books featuring kids who don’t like reading at the beginning of the book but love reading by the end. But I couldn’t find a single book about—much less narrated by—a proud, incorrigible, unrepentant, full-blown non-reader.

So I decided to write one.

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Photo-palooza: MacKids at ALA 2011 in New Orleans

In case you weren't following us on Twitter, a lot of us went to ALA in New Orleans last week. And it was such a success! Here are some photos to give you all an idea of what went down for the MacKids group! --Ksenia

While setting up the booth, it is essential to eat! Here, I caught the gals off-guard as they were muching awya on po' boys from Mother's.

The remnants of booth setup:

But in the end, don't both sides of our booth look pretty?

Because we were superwomen when it came to setting up the booth, we treated ourselves to a breakfast at the famous Cafe du Monde. Look at those beignets in all their powdery sugar glory!

This guy did an amazing job staying still on that ladder!

The streets of New Orleans were constantly filled with music:

Back at the booth on Friday night, these Priddy bags were ready to be scooped up by eager librarians. :) Just like at BEA, these were a huge hit with everyone!

Hot off the presses! Our fabulous 16-month calendar!

Lego master Sean Kenney made our logo...in Legos!

Our special Wrinkle in Time corner. Have you "Liked" our Facebook fan page yet?

Author Monika Schroder signing books at our booth

Hungry Caterpillars were seen walking around the convention center. Were they looking for Eric Carle to wosh him a happy birthday on Saturday?

Ben Hatke signing copies of Zita the Spacegirl

Our Elizabeth Fithian chatting with author Jack Gantos right before he started signing galleys of his upcoming book Dead End in Norvelt

Jack Gantos' intricate authographs!

Marcus Sedgwick, Printz-honor author of Revolver, came all the way from England to be with us at ALA in New Orleans! And right behind him, you can actually see the new paperback cover for Revolver!

Morris Award Finalist Lish McBride signs copies of Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

Have you read Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Cat Valente? Well if you have, you know about the Green Wind. That's his jacket that I'm wearing.

If you came by at 3:30 on Sunday, you know we were having a special coffee and chocolate break in honor of Gabrielle Zevin's All These Things I've Done. So you got to have coffee and chocolate and....

....a galley of All These Things I've Done. Here, Joy is guarding the galleys right before the clock hit 3:30. We had quite the enthusiastic line for these.

Picture book author/illustrator Matthew Cordell signing books and drawing in them

Authors meeting authors! A blurry Julie Halpern with Marcus Sedgwick

Illustrator extraordinate Shane Evans signs copies of his upcoming Chocolate Me!, written by his friend Taye Diggs. Yes, that Taye Diggs :)

Mo Willems (in the middle) came by our booth and hung out with our Neal Porter and Ed Young.

And speaking of amazing illustrators.....

Here I caught our Caldecott winner Erin Stead a bit off guard making a goofy face!

Ahh...much better, right Erin? Erin and Phil Stead signing copies of their Caldecott award winner A Sick Day for Amos McGee

This here is Erin Stead's bag. We all fell in love with it. Could Erin be starting a fashion strend? You could get your own at Kate Spade. All the gals in the office want one now...

And here is our Erin Stead at the Newbery/Caldecott banquet Sunday evening!

That's all folks! Until next year!

Fall Out Boy

by Glenn Murphy  

This is part four of Glenn's six-part blog series featuring Stuff That Scares Your Pants Off!

Previously:
Chapter One: The Snot Guy Scares Your Pants Off
Chapter Two: Bats, Vampires and the Scary Unknown
Chapter Three: Tornadoes, Turbulence and Terror

At the end of my last blog installment, I had just survived a terrifying tornado and a turbulent trip across the Atlantic from America to Edinburgh.

Well, as you’ve probably guessed by now, I survived the trip home, and I’m now back in sunny Raleigh, North Carolina - enjoying a) the sunshine, b) my local outdoor swimming pool, and c) not having plummeted to my doom in that airplane four weeks ago.

Since we’ve already looked at the tornadoes and airplanes, this month I thought we’d explore a related theme - the fear of heights and falling.

As I explain in my book Stuff That Scares your Pants Off, when I was young, I was afraid of lots of things. One of these was heights. And although heights are easier to avoid than, say, the dark or open spaces, they’re no less terrifying when you find yourself somewhere high up.

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MacKids at BEA 2011

I hope everyone was following us via the Twitter at BEA! If not, here's are highlights of what was what.

Monday, May 25th

Before BEA even started, our team busied ourselves with planning an Agent Party Extravaganza! There were delicious hors d'oeuvres, balloons, and editorial trading cards! Here's our pres, Jon Yaged giving a toast to a room full of agents.

Tuesday, May 24th

We gave out a bunch of Priddy tote bags on Tuesday AND Wednesday. Are you one of the lucky hundreds that got one? One person told us, "Well, this is cute but not cute enough." I beg to differ!

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Turning Pages

By Penny Colman, author of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship That Changed The World

Always in my line of sight when I write, is a piece of blue-lined notebook paper, now brown with age, on which I had scrawled in pencil this quote from Barbara Tuchman, the author of popular history, including the Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Guns of August: “Whether in biography or straight history, the writer’s object is---or should be---to . . . . want the reader to turn the page and keep on turning to the end.”

My goal, for sure, but figuring out how to do that can keep me awake at night, especially when I’ve set out to write a joint biography through the lens of a legendary friendship that fueled the 19th century fight for improve the social, civil, and economic conditions for women. Some of my page-turning techniques appear in all my books, including my conversational writing style. But this book posed a particular challenge in that my main characters weren’t vampires or wizards, but long ago dead women and their context wasn’t a reality show, but the unfathomable past.

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