Can I crow for a minute? Today marks the pub day of Jessixa Bagley's 3rd picture book! Laundry Day tells the story of Tic and Tac, two badger brothers with a penchant for getting into trouble. It's playful, it's fun, it's funny, and you'll want to pick it up and read it again and again. But as they used to say on Reading Rainbow, you don't have to take my word for it! Laundry Day is a JLG selection and has earned two starred reviews."Gorgeous, detailed watercolor illustrations highlight each page and truly bring this tale to life. VERDICT A must-buy for any library, this simple but joyful book will be a hit whether read one-on-one or shared with a group."—School Library Journal, starred review"Bagley, who dealt with more somber themes in Boats for Papa and Before I Leave, uses her tidy, detailed rendering style to great comic effect."—Publishers Weekly, starred review"Cleverly plotted and skillfully crafted, this humorous story manages to convey both adult and child perspectives. A good choice for one-on-one sharing; make sure to allow time to savor the illustrative details."—Booklist"This tale of badger mischief is excellent both as a read-aloud and as a book for beginning readers."—Kirkus ReviewsIf you're in the Seattle area, Jessixa is hosting a book launch TONIGHT (February 7th) at Secret Garden Books in Seattle at 7pm!She'll be doing a reading and there are laundry-themed cookies for the munching (Jessixa promises the cookies are laundry-themed not flavored!). And in conjunction with the book's theme of clothes, Jessixa is organizing a donation drive at the launch for YouthCare, a Seattle non-profit that helps homeless youth in the city. For more info about YouthCare, visit: http://www.youthcare.org/Congratulations, Jessixa! We are so proud of you!
Hello from my new roost, Upstart Crow Literary! I’ve been wracking my brain for some hawk-crow-bird related jokes and can’t come up with any, but it all does seem fitting, doesn’t it? I’m delighted to join the very fine group here, and for my first post, wanted to talk about the kinds of projects I’m looking for. For more about my tastes and my background, please read on.I represent books for children: picture books, chapter books, middle grade, and young adult, along with some non-fiction for children and teens too. First, and most important, I’m looking for books that make me feel something. Grab me by the heart and don’t let go! Complex, layered, flawed, and lively characters are irresistible to me. I love writing that acknowledges and explores the way humans can hold opposing feelings—sometimes lots of them—all at one time.Plot is equally important. I want to be drawn deeply into your story, and even if it isn’t an adventure, I want to feel like I’m on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what will happen next. Humor is key—I like smart, witty humor (not so much gross-out humor). Even if your book isn’t meant to be a knee-slapper, a bit of something funny feels like real life to me. I want writing that’s sharp, focused, thoughtful and inventive. I’m a sucker for bittersweet and soulful. Literary or commercial, high concept or character-driven, I want to be surprised by your book.I’m committed to building a diverse list of books and authors and open to just about any category or genre: picture book, chapter book, middle-grade, young adult; contemporary, mystery, sci-fi, fantasy—you name it.Here’s an even more detailed list!For YA, I’m interested in:
For MG:
For Picture books:
I’m an editorial agent, and passionate about my clients and their projects. The lists above are a grab-bag of interests and ideas, but please try me, even if you’re not sure if your project is described above—as I said, I want to be surprised!
Today is the official publication day of Jacqueline West's riveting YA novel, DREAMERS OFTEN LIE. Jacqueline is author of the NYT bestselling middle grade series, The Books of Elsewhere, and DREAMERS is her first foray into the YA genre, and she's done a smashing job of it, too.
“Engrossing . . . A dizzying new twist on one of the Bard’s most famous plays.”
DREAMERS is Black Swan meets Shakespeare--a twisty, enthralling story of one girl's brush with madness:After a skiing accident that fractures her skull, Jaye is left with a splitting headache and strong delusions. Jaye must keep these delusions secret from her family, doctors, and everyone at school in order to keep her starring part in the school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream — even though visions of Shakespeare and his characters have been following her around since the hospital.But her attempts to resume her normal life are thwarted even further when flesh-and-blood Romeo shows up in her anatomy class. Her infatuation gives way to more hallucinations, and increasingly dangerous secret acts. Will she figure out what’s real and what’s pretend before it’s too late?We're happy to see this novel out in the world, and you can get your hands on a copy here, here, and here. Many congratulations, Jacqueline!
I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Upstart Crow client Andrew Brumbach over at the Literary Rambles blog, where we discussed the release of his debut novel, THE EYE OF MIDNIGHT the harrowing submissions process, and the joy of getting "the call". Pop over the blog for the full interview, and do be sure to put THE EYE OF MIDNIGHT on your "to read" list today!
At the New Yorker, tetchy old fogey and mediocreformer film critic David Denby has published a lament about how few teens are reading books these days. He has one great overheard line—a student saying "Books smell like old people"; and a few careful caveats ("It’s very likely that teen-agers, attached to screens of one sort or another, read more words than they ever have in the past"); but mostly he is describing a decline of western civilization via smartphone. "If teachers can make books important to kids ... those kids may turn off the screens," he wraps up, making clear his real issue here: a favored primacy of one form of technology (ink on paper) over another (e-ink or pixels on screens).Here's the thing: He's casting a transitional period of one medium making room for another (books are having to accomodate digital platforms) as an issue of lack of culture; he's doing this by alluding to a halcyon time that never really existed; and he's privileging one mode of living (the life of the reader) over another (the life of the nonreader). It's tin-eared, narrow-minded, wrong.Yes, many teens grow up and feel little attachment to books as adults. But this has been the case for at least the past fifty years or so among most people. Maybe not among those of us who read and write for a living—but then again, we are not a representative group and have been a minority for a good long while. Growing up in a mostly blue-collar community (and yes, this is anecdotal), books were around but not a focus in most people's lives. There were occasional bestsellers stuffed in an alcove (the ones everyone seemed to own when I was a kid were The Exorcist, The Godfather, and a self-help book called I'm OK, You're OK), but I can't recall ever seeing an adult sitting in a chair and reading to him- or herself. It must have happened—I knew one Navy pipefitter who loved the Destroyer series of novels—but mostly books were just one entertainment option among many. And it is still that way.Which is entirely okay. Books still play a big role in many of our lives, but for a lot of people, that role is a small one. Their lives may or may not be the poorer for it, but we who love books are hardly in a position to judge these people. And the lion's share of readers are lovers of books that Denby would likely sneer at, anyway—genre stories without literary merit. Most readers, after all, turn to books for entertainment. And who are we to insist our form of entertainment is better than others?But even if we overlook that weird judgmental tic of Denby's, there is more to be said for reading on phones and tablets. Now books are just one more media option on these ubiquitous devices we all carry, and still exist in ink-and-paper form for those who want them that way. More formats means more access means a greater potential audience. This can only be a good thing. We can carry libraries in our pockets. Whether we choose to read those ebooks or to play a game, we at least have that choice.Books may never again have the pride of place they once occupied a century ago, before film, radio, television, video games, the internet, and other unimagined distractions came along. But it's still too early to tell how they're going to fit into this modern world taking shape around us. I know teens who read many novels on their iPhones. I know other teens who only want ink on paper. Either way, they're readers, and they're smart as hell, and they're not going away anytime soon.[Revised headline to split that infinitive, because why not?]
There have been some great posts this week about the diverse books movement. Jacqueline Woodson's 1998 article in the Horn Book, titled Who Can Tell My Story has been revived. Ellen Oh's salient postDear White Writer takes on diverse books and white privilege. There are numerous other articles and posts I could point you to; the discussion about diverse books is wide, intense, difficult, eye-opening, enraging, encouraging, and exciting.In the last year, as the conversation about diverse books has picked up steam, a noticeable shift has taken place in my query box. It's a shift that happens each time the trends change in publishing. Paranormal gave way to dystopian, which gave way to horror, which gave way to contemporary, which has recently given way to...diverse books?The We Need Diverse Books campaign started in 2014, igniting a much-needed conversation about the kid lit titles we are putting into the world. And we do need diverse books. But even more importantly, we need diverse authors writing diverse books. And yet the queries are pouring in to my submissions box, written by mostly white writers, citing the popularity of the We Need Diverse Books campaign as justification for them having written their book about a person of color.What Ellen Oh asserted in her blog post bears repeating: diversity in books isn't a trend. It's not the latest "in" or magic bullet that's going to get you published. And if you're a white writer who is trying to capitalize on that, take a keep breath and back slowly away from your keyboard.Because the diverse books movement is not about you. And it’s certainly not about your writing."But this is an important conversation!" you say. "I want to be a part of it!" you say. Here’s how you can do your part in bringing diversity to kid lit: read diverse books and authors, and encourage others in your local and online communities to read them, too. Ask for books by diverse authors at your library and your local independent bookstore. Talk about diverse books and authors on social media. Read books by diverse authors to your children. Organize a drive to donate books by diverse authors to your local schools. Give books by diverse authors as gifts to your friends and family.Your part in this conversation is to support diverse writers, not further your own career. Kwame Alexander. Ellen Oh. Thanna Lai. Rita Williams-Garcia. And on the non-kid lit side, Ruth Ozeki and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, to name a few. Seek them out. Read their works. Spread the word about a writer whose work has touched you.And as for your own writing? The best story you can tell is your own story, one that speaks the truth about your experiences. One that translates your triumphs and failures into an unforgettable character. That’s the story that will stand out from the pack in the query box. Every single time.
It's a grand day for books, and we'd like to extend our warmest congratulations to the extremely talented 2016 ALA award winners!
It's a cornucopia of cover reveals at Upstart Crow this week!Today, we are thrilled to share the cover for Amy Allgeyer's riveting debut novel, DIG TOO DEEP (Albert Whitman, April 2016). The good folks at YA Books Central did the official reveal yesterday, and you can hop over there to enter to win a free advance reading copy.
It’s not just that Liberty Briscoe feels like an outsider in Ebbotsville, Kentucky. She expected it wouldn’t be easy to move from the city to her granny’s place for her last year of high school. Still, Liberty can’t shake the feeling that something’s not quite right. Everyone says the water’s safe, yet nobody drinks it. When Granny becomes sick, like so many others in town, Liberty starts to wonder about the water, the people who tested it, and the coal mining company that took the top off Tanner’s Peak.Now Liberty must follow her instincts to uncover secrets, despite those who think she’s crazy to ask questions, including her own boyfriend. But even as the threats become consequences, she digs deeper. What’s more dangerous: the water in the valley or the search for the truth.
DIG TOO DEEP features a butt-kicking protagonist in Liberty Briscoe--she never backs down from doing what's right, even when it puts her in danger. Be sure to put this book on your must-read list for Spring!
We are so very excited about Leah Konen's steamy contemporary romance, THE LAST TIME WE WERE US (Katherine Tegen, May 2016).
Liz Grant is about to have the summer of her life.She and her friend MacKenzie are getting invited to all the best parties and, with any luck, Innis Taylor, the most gorgeous guy in Bonneville, will be her boyfriend before the Fourth of July.Jason Sullivan wasn’t supposed to come back from juvy. A million years ago, he was Liz’s best friend, but that was before he ditched her for a different crowd. Before he attacked Innis’s older brother, leaving Skip’s face burned and their town in shock.Liz always found it hard to believe what they said about Jason, but all of Bonneville thinks he’s dangerous. If word gets out she’s seeing him, she could lose everything. But what if there’s more to that horrible night than she knows? And how many more people will get hurt when the truth finally comes out?Leah Konen’s southern romance swelters with passion, as it explores the devastating crush of lies, the delicate balance of power and perception, and one girl’s journey to find herself while uncovering the secrets of so many others.
You can read an excerpt of Chapter One at Vilma's Blog and check in for updates about signings and appearances over at Leah's author page.
[Winners in boldface, but it was a particularly strong field of nominees this year.]FICTIONKaren E. Bender, RefundAngela Flournoy, The Turner HouseLauren Groff, Fates and FuriesAdam Johnson, Fortune SmilesHanya Yanagihara, A Little LifeNONFICTIONTa-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and MeSally Mann, Hold StillSy Montgomery, The Soul of an OctopusCarla Power, If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the QuranTracy K. Smith, Ordinary LightPOETRYRoss Gay, Catalog of Unabashed GratitudeTerrance Hayes, How to Be DrawnRobin Coste Lewis, Voyage of the Sable VenusAda Limón, Bright Dead ThingsPatrick Phillips, Elegy for a Broken MachineYOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATUREAli Benjamin, The Thing About JellyfishLaura Ruby, Bone GapSteve Sheinkin, Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam WarNeal Shusterman, Challenger DeepNoelle Stevenson, Nimona