New York Times Best Illustrated Books of 2024
Enjoy, revel, smile, and feel your emotions blossom as you check out the best illustrated books of the year as picked by the New York Times. This art is funny, poignant, adorable, and just plain irresistible.
(I used to live in New York…going to this exhibition is one of the things I miss. And the chilIquiles at Zarela’s.)
Read MoreLibraryCon Live! 2024
Oh my sainted aunt, I am so excited to receive an invite for School Library Journal‘s LibraryCon Live! I’ll be on a fantasy panel talking about my upcoming book, The Griffin’s Boy, on November 14th.
This book was a dearly beloved manuscript that spent ten years (yes, an entire decade) in a drawer because no editor anywhere found it remotely interesting, to my bafflement–it has a baby griffin and a miniature dragon in it; how could anybody be less than enchanted? To have it finally find a home with Peachtree book is balm to my soul, and to be able to talk about it on a panel with other fantasy writers–it just makes me giddy.
Life Advice from a 96-Year-Old
This is a video well worth watching, not least for the speaker’s understanding of her 100th decade as a way to relive her childhood–or more specifically, to live the childhood she wishes she had had. “I’m having my second childhood now, my happy childhood,” she says. “I had a miserable childhood. I did not enjoy being a child….So I have fun now. I’m enjoying my childhood, finally.”
I love the idea that we are not limited to the childhoods we actually had. That we can revisit that intense, passionate, fresh, joyful and rage-filled and awe-filled time, as we wish. That we can do it better, if we want to.
And children’s literature gives us a gateway to do that. Those of us who had lonely childhoods can read about life-changing best friendships. Those of us who were (oh, perhaps) a bit bored can read about wild adventures. Those of us who felt powerless or helpless can find stories of undaunted heroes.
Childhood never leaves us, or rather, we never leave it. Maybe, as the speaker of this video suggests, we grow not away from our childhoods, but toward them–if we’re lucky, coming full circle.
Read MoreHow To Get Published
A friend of a friend asked for some publishing advice recently, and I put together a little something that I thought might help others as well. Here you go:
Most of the big publishers require an agent, so if you have a finished manuscript or a solid proposal for a longer work (usually that means a few sample chapters and a well-developed outline), you can start there. Editor Brooke Vitale has an excellent list of agents who take children’s and YA literature.
Smaller and local presses don’t always require an agent, so you can also can start there if you like. In Maine, Islandport and Downeast Books do books with Maine/New England themes.
When it comes to looking for editors, assistant editors and associate editors can be the best targets. They are still building a list of writers and illustrators. Full editors and senior editors often have well-established relationships with creative types and not as much room on their lists for new people.
One thing that can help is to go to bookstores and libraries and look for books that you like or that seem similar to what you’ve written and see who the publisher is. Do check pub dates, too, because it’s not that helpful to see what a publisher was putting out a decade ago….you want current stuff.
Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance and the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators both have classes and workshops that can be helpful. And it can just be encouraging to get together with other people who are starting out and gather tips that way.
It’s a long slow process to get published! While you have one book out there looking for a home, continue working on new ideas and developing more manuscripts. It’s good for your mental health and for your career to have more than one (or two, or three) projects to show.
A friend of mine says, “It is the ground state of a manuscript to be rejected.” Most manuscripts are rejected most of the time. Prepare yourself, allow yourself to be sad for a few days when you get your first (second, third, seventeenth…) rejection, and keep going. Chocolate helps.
Sarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Readers will treasure the blossoming friendship between opposites in this whimsically illustrated tale. Short chapters and plenty of action make for an accessible and appealing reading experience. . . . Touching and inspiring.”
—Kirkus Reviews