Hello! Welcome back to the kid lit craft column. I’ve decided to do a series on all the different types of kid lit! That’s right! We are going to be covering everything from picture books to middle grade and in between! Today, we are tackling picture books! Now, I’m sure we are all familiar with… Read more »
Have you been kicking around a children’s story idea in your head and you’re not sure where to start? You’re in luck! I’ve compiled several key questions into a survey and asked parents, grandparents, and teachers for their input. Based on their responses, I’ve summarized the top five best tools recommended for writing a children’s… Read more »
Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Rajani LaRocca. Rajani was born in India, raised in Kentucky, and now lives in the Boston area, where she practices medicine and writes award-winning novels and picture books. She has always been an omnivorous reader, and now she is an omnivorous writer of fiction and nonfiction, novels, picture… Read more »
‘Tis the season to celebrate books! Because reading and literacy are so important there are a number of book-oriented events on the annual calendar. Some are regional, some global. And they all emphasize the importance of reading for kids. As writers (and illustrators!) for children we should be deeply invested in spreading literacy and a… Read more »
Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Anna Harwell Celenza, a music professor of Georgetown University where she teaches courses in music history, radio journalism and the music industry. She has written several scholarly books, is a writer/commentator for National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and her work has been featured on nationally syndicated radio… Read more »
Hello and welcome to another exciting episode of DIY MFA Radio! Today I’m interviewing Calee Lee, the founder and CEO of Xist Publishing, the largest independent digital-first children’s publisher. She is also the author of more than 15 books for children. Dedicated to helping kids develop a lifetime love of reading, she founded Xist Publishing in… Read more »
When I was a kid, books were like my third parent. I absorbed the wholesome lessons of loyalty to friends, obedience to parents and faith in myself as if a stack of children’s novels were my personal guide to life. At the time, I didn’t consider the impact that children’s literature would have on me… Read more »
Everyone knows the saying, “The book was better than the movie.” This is true in . . . well, just about every case. And this is not to say that movies adapted from books are bad by default. On the contrary, they’re often very good. After all, they have such great source material! And it’s such… Read more »
Imagine taking a sweet picture book about cats and then altering it completely – crossing out and penciling in new text, drawing over the illustrations and scribbling laser beams that shoot out from the cat’s eyes with a permanent marker. Back when we were wildly imaginative kids, we did this to books all the time…. Read more »
