I sit down to read
And turn the first page,
Expecting to watch
One plot take the stage:
One princess, one moon,
One tin man, one train—
But wait—change that tune!
It’s one giant chain
Of riddles and hooks
About picture books!
A riddle book—about books? Yep, that’s right! In our recently released picture book Spot the Plot, thirteen witty and wacky poems challenge readers to “Name That Book.” With a glass slipper here and a spiderweb there, Lynn Munsinger’s sweet illustrations lead young readers to the solutions. From Goodnight Moon to Madeline, children and parents alike will smile when they recognize their favorite stories.
Can you spot the plot? Guess the popular children’s books from the three riddles below, and post your answers in the comments for the chance to win a $25 Chronicle Kids Picture Book Collection! We’ll choose two winners at random from everyone who correctly guesses all of the riddles in the blog post by November 30, 2009 5:00pm PDT. Happy sleuthing!
1)
Being brave
is all about
getting your appendix out!
Ambulance comes
and takes away
lucky me
from school one day.
But it turns my classmates blue –
they want an
appendix, too!
Paris, France,
is where I shine.
fill me in – I’m
_____________!
2)
A magical telling,
a pig for the selling,
a spider is spelling
out words that amaze.
Do you know this spider,
this spiderweb writer?
The pig will delight her
the rest of her days.
3)
Dear Friends,
A worldwide hike is what I took
And fell into this picture book
of many mini shots of me,
though I am very hard to see.
Chronicle is thrilled to sponsor Baby Loves Disco—an afternoon dance party featuring real music spun and mixed by real djs at real dance clubs blending classic disco tunes From the 70s, & 80s. The fun spills out from all corners of the club: bubble machines, baskets of scarves and egg-shakers, a chill-out room (with tents, books and puzzles), diaper changing stations, a full spread of healthy snacks and dancing, LOTS of dancing. But at its core, Baby loves Disco is a community event that brings kids together with kids and parents together with parents.
Everyone who attends goes home with a nifty gift, such as Small Paul pajamas or a collection of Chronicle’s Paul Frank goodies.
Kids say the darndest things! You just never know what’s gonna come out of their little mouths. One of our pals told us about this website called OutofTheMouthsof.com and we decided it would be fun to partner with them on a contest. Check it out at www.outofthemouthsof.com and if you have kids (or nephews, nieces, grandkids, whatever!) enter their quotes and you may win a new $250 library of our very own best-selling children’s books. The contest runs through the month of November and you can also vote for your favorite quotes. The winning three quotes will take home a $250 library of Chronicle’s children’s books, a $100 library of our parenting books, or a gift basket filled with $50 of method baby & kid products. A fourth award – “blogger’s favorite” – will be chosen by guest mom blogger, Jessica Turner of themomcreative.com (who we adore!), and awarded with a $50 Starbucks gift card.
On October 8, 2009, children across the globe read Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar to break a world record for the largest shared reading experience.
Sponsored by Jumpstart, which brings college students and community volunteers together with preschool children for tutoring and mentoring, Read for the Record involved hundreds of volunteers hoping to read to more than 1 million kids! Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira read The Very Hungry Caterpillar on The Today Show, Steelers football players read to kids in Pittsburgh, and right here in the Bay Area, staff from the Chronicle Book Children’s Publishing Group read to local schoolchildren.
In San Francisco, Editor Julie Romeis, Assistant Editor Naomi Kirsten and Marketing & Publicity Director Cathleen Brady visited the all-girls K-8 Katherine Delmar Burke School. All three kindergarten classes gathered in the library for a reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Cathleen reported,
“Many students had memorized the story from bedtime readings at home and recited the text right along with us. Each was thrilled to receive a sticker proving that she had participated in breaking a world record! And all enjoyed drawing pictures of caterpillars, butterflies, or their favorite foods on their certificates. A wonderful school and a wonderful group of students, teachers, and librarian extraordinaire, Susan Faust!”
Publishing Director Josalyn Moran, Associate Editor Melissa Manlove, Senior Editor Andrea Menotti, Marketing Coordinator Lea Yancy and Marketing Manager Lara Starr visited Bret Harte Elementary School. BHES serves a culturally diverse community, and is located in the economically-challenged Bayview District of the City. We visited three kindergarten classrooms, including one serving the needs of English language learners. The awesome kids could not have been sweeter or more enthusiastic about our visit—as soon as we finished the book, they wanted to read it again! Thanks to Penguin Group USA and other generous donors, we were able to gift each class with Giant (I’m talking 18” x 13” giant) Hardcover Editions of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, huggable plush caterpillar and ladybug, stickers, Eric Carle Lacing Cards, Eric Carle Animal Flash Cards and more.
Assistant Managing Editor Molly Jones visited her aunt Sue Johnston’s class at Brookvale Elementary School in Fremont. Sue teaches a mixed K/1 special education class.
Molly shares this from her visit:
“My aunt to her class: ‘This is Molly.’
An adorable boy in her class: ‘What’s a Molly?’
I loved them all instantly.
There is one little girl in my aunt’s class who has a hearing disability, so I hooked up a special microphone to my shirt that transmitted a higher volume of my voice to her hearing aids. It was wonderful to watch her enjoying story time. When I reached the last spread of the story, with Eric Carle’s butterfly illustration, she exclaimed, ‘Beautiful!’ in the most heartfelt voice—one that could only come from the enchanted perspective of a child. I know that with reactions like hers, Read for the Record will have successfully inspired hundreds of kids to read, and I feel lucky to have been a part of it.”
Check out this video from the visit to Bret Harte:
A special thanks to the San Francisco Education Fund for working with us on the wonderful event at Bret Harte Elementary. We couldn’t have done it without them! Learn more about their amazing work to benefit the San Francisco public school system here.
We were so proud to participate in this world-wide celebration of literacy and the genius of Eric Carle. We’re also proud of our beautiful collection of Eric Carle products, including:
On a Thursday afternoon I met with 10-year-old Stevie, an aspiring comic book author without an inkling as to why she was in the Chronicle Books lobby. I had one take (yes, “take”) to greet Stevie, introduce myself, and explain why she was at the office and what we had planned for the rest of the day.
Here’s what made the meeting especially unique—and why I had one take: I was reviewing a 10-year-old’s manuscript for publication and I had a microphone attached to my sweater while doing so. Our meeting was filmed for an upcoming segment on ABC 7’s View from the Bay.
(Below: The mics.)
The segment will air tomorrow at 3 p.m.
Without giving too much away, I will say that there were some surprises that afternoon. Knowing that Stevie was an aspiring comic book author, I brought some comics of mine to share with her from my elementary school days.
First: Stevie’s book-in-progress, Funny Bunny. Stevie’s main character, Funny Bunny, drives the narrative with her antics. (Note Stevie’s expressive use of text in the frame, “Fluffy did this.”)
Below, the comic book I put together years ago, featuring another incorrigible rabbit, Tugs. The humans in Tugs’ life were perpetually at their wit’s end.
And, of course, there is Chronicle’s New York Times bestseller Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld.
Stevie and I have clearly been inspired by floppy ears in our artistic pursuits. Could it be a subconscious homage to Warner Brothers’ Bugs? A connection to the classic Peter Rabbit story, and a way to tap into our long-past toddler days? Or something beyond words? Could what you see in Duck! Rabbit! be the key to your artistic inspiration? My advice to Stevie is the same for any aspiring author. Embrace what you see, and then write, draw, create. It is truly the Chronicle way.
What we're reading; what we're publishing; what makes us laugh; and what excites us. It's a forum for our authors, all of us here at Chronicle, and, especially, you our readers to share our thoughts on more than just books. It's about the images, the people, and the experiences that inspire us all, every day, to do what we love. So post a comment, send us a link, and join the conversation.
Not long ago, I had a meeting unlike any other.
