Chronicle Books Blog

We like our shenanigans here at Chronicle Books. Perhaps you’ve picked up on this from reading our blog? One April Fool’s Day, many years ago now, someone-who-shall-remain-anonymous placed mustaches on all of the art in the building. And just last year on April Fool’s Day another someone-who-shall-remain-anonymous placed 3-D glasses on all of the art in the building (you see, we see things differently here at Chronicle books—if you don’t believe me, just check out our logo). I think most of the evidence from these escapades has long-since disappeared, but this photo shows that at least one mustache and one pair of 3-D glasses remains on display in the building.

This year it was spectacularly quiet here on April Fool’s Day. So we thought we’d better make this an Easter to remember.

Gillian Gaeta, Contracts Manager extraordinaire, rallied a crew together to implement The Great Easter Egg Hunt of 2012. She filled 300 colorful plastic eggs with Reese’s peanut butter cups, Hershey’s kisses, jelly beans, jolly ranchers, Cadbury eggs, and other Easter candy. In one very special egg she placed a gift certificate to the local and delicious Darwin Café. We waited for the office to empty out… and then we embarked on a mission to surprise our fellow Chronicle-ers.

Children’s Editorial Assistant Ariel Richardson sneaking around the office.

Contracts Assistant Yesenia Herrera hiding an egg in a model.

Children’s Editor Melissa Manlove gathering eggs in a make-shift pouch.

Contracts Manager Gillian Gaeta getting creative…

Here were some of our sneaky hiding places:

Some eggs we hid in plain sight.

While some were hidden in shadow.

(Chocolate does make all afflictions better, right?)

One egg is well disguised among a stockpile of oranges on a desk.

Why does that egg look so natural there?

Melissa Manlove hides an egg in a fold of cloth in the Crit Space.

There were many eggs hidden behind and on top of books. After all, our office is filled with books!

We only hid one egg on the fourth floor (our communal area, with our conference rooms, library, and café space), though: the winning egg. We thought it might be a challenge to find, but Distribution Sales Director Allison Elsby found the egg by 8:56am, before I had even made it to my desk!

Well, perhaps our hunt wasn’t quite as unusual as mustaches and 3-D glasses, but it involved chocolate and surprises—what could be better than that? And I like to imagine that people in the office will be stumbling across candy-filled Easter eggs for years to come.

Yours in crime,

—Children’s Editorial Assistant Ariel Richardson, Contract Manager Gillian Gaeta, Children’s Editor Melissa Manlove, and Contracts Assistant Yesenia Herrera

Yes, I woke up at 5:30 this morning to watch the ALA Awards (I only wake up that early for ALA Awards and flights to exotic places like Italy). Okay, so they didn’t start until 5:45 our time, but I wanted to make sure I got one of the 10,000 slots for online viewing. Plus, I knew I’d need some tea to make it through the morning and I didn’t want to be distracted with whistling teakettles during the announcements.

Breakfast.

I watched on my laptop, with my Bitterblue ARC close by in case I needed entertainment (of course I didn’t, I was riveted). I’m about 2/3 of the way through Bitterblue, and it is hard to put down at this point… I went to sleep reading it last night, and figured I could wake up reading it this morning!

There were definitely some surprises this morning. None of the Newbery winners were on the Heavy Medal Mock Newbery shortlist, and I haven’t read any of them! Guess I’ll have to get reading. And A Ball for Daisy and Blackout weren’t on our Mock Caldecott shortlist either, though we did have a great discussion about Grandpa Green and Me… Jane. I’ve been talking with some editors here at Chronicle about how fun it would be to have a Mock Sibert next year. Anyone else out there interested in attending one if we organized?

While watching, I texted with friends at Candlewick and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. It was a much more civilized time for viewing on the east coast, and they were watching with their coworkers. Both publishers had several Caldecott and Newbery hopefuls this year, and I know they were nervous. Houghton’s Okay for Now and Balloons Over Broadway have been much discussed, as have Candlewick’s A Monster Calls and I Want My Hat Back—we discussed all of them in our Mocks, in fact. All of those books got recognition in some form (though not for the Caldecott or Newbery) except A Monster Calls. And Balloons Over Broadway, Chronicle’s Mock Caldecott Medal winner, got the Sibert Medal, an award for nonfiction. After the announcements, I got to debate the winners with my old book club / Mock Caldecott group in Boston via e-mail. We all graduated from the masters in Children’s Literature program at Simmons College, and our beloved professor Cathie Mercier was on the Caldecott committee this year. Knowing how she thinks about books, it was fun trying to get inside her head, and imagining what the committee discussion must have been like.

I also work at an independent bookstore part-time. It helps me keep in touch with my bookselling roots, with industry trends, and with my audience. There is nothing like connecting the right book with a child reader. So, while watching the awards I was also frantically trying to order the winners for the store. It is such fun trying to remember all the winners, deciding how many books to order, and attempting to beat all the other booksellers to clicking that “order” button.

Here is the full list of award winners for your enjoyment!

What a way to start the morning!
Now, off to work.

Ariel Richardson
Editorial Assistant, Children’s

Subscribe to our monthly Chronicle Kids Newsletter.

What a delicious week I’ve had! I’ve been lucky enough to attend both a Mock Newbery and a Mock Caldecott this week. It makes me so happy to have an excuse to read some of the best and most-discussed books of the year, and to have a chance to discuss them with smart, like-minded people.

CHRONICLE’S MOCK CALDECOTT: Thursday, January 18, 2012

It has been a busy week for the Children’s Group here at Chronicle: we had an original art show with the rest of the company to share some of the original art we’ll raffle off at ALA, everyone has been making last minute preparations for ALA, and we received the wonderful announcement that Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site topped the NYT bestseller list yesterday at #1. Still, we took the time to slow down and talk about some of the best picture books of the year. We got cozy on the couches in the library, ate chocolate, and talked books.

Here Children’s Design Director, Kristine Brogno, and Children’s Senior Production Coordinator, Wendy Thorpe, discuss one of our favorites, I Want My Hat Back.

We started by going over the terms and criteria, and talking about how the actual committee works. Then we discussed each book by following the CCBC discussion guidelines. Although we’re so used to talking about submissions, acquisitions, and works-in-progress together, I wasn’t sure how it would feel to be arguing over real, published books with colleagues, and I certainly didn’t know whether we’d agree. I have to say I was surprised at how much we agreed on the shortlist! That isn’t to say that we didn’t argue a bit. The arguing is the fun part!

Here is the shortlist for Chronicle’s Mock Caldecott.

THE SHORTLIST:*

GRANDPA GREEN by Lane Smith

BALLOONS OVER BROADWAY by Melissa Sweet

I WANT MY HAT BACK by Jon Klassen

ME… JANE by Patrick McDonnell

WHERE’S WALRUS? by Stephen Savage

MOUSE & LION by Rand Burkert and illustrated by Nancy Ekholm Burkert

UNDERGROUND by Shane W. Evans

STARS by Mary Lyn Ray and illustrated by Marla Frazee

DRAWING FROM MEMORY by Allen Say

THE HOUSE BABA BUILT by Ed Young

NAAMAH AND THE ARK AT NIGHT by Susan Campbell Bartoletti and illustrated by Holly Meade

*We decided not to consider any of our own books because, well, we might be a bit biased.

Here is editor Melissa Manlove in the process of tallying the votes.

OUR RESULTS:

Medal: BALLOONS OVER BROADWAY by Melissa Sweet

Honor: I WANT MY HAT BACK by Jon Klassen

No one had anything negative to say about Balloons Over Broadway—always the sign of a book to watch for! It seemed like Melissa Sweet really immersed herself in the world of the book, making puppets and collecting relevant original sources for her collages. And we had some amazing discussion about how deceptively simple the illustrations are for I Want My Hat Back. That book holds up so well to rereading—it makes me laugh every time! Underground and Grandpa Green were very close runners-up, but we decided just to name one honor book.

It is interesting to see what other Mock Caldecott groups have come up with. The Horn Book has started a blog this year called “Calling Caldecott” in which they discuss and debate the contenders. Here are the results of their online Mock. And here some results from other Mock Caldecotts around the country.

When I lived in Boston I had a beloved group of girlfriends (children’s writers, editors, teachers) who would have a Mock Caldecott every year. This year their shortlist was much longer than ours at 36 titles! So I won’t list them all here. But they gave the medal to Swirl by Swirl, with honors to A Nation’s Hope and Perfect Square. I’m fascinated to find that there was no overlap between our winners! It makes me wonder what would have happened if we had included some other titles on our shortlist: Blue Chicken, Blackout, and Swirl by Swirl in particular, but also, of course, Brother Sun, Sister Moon, our very own Caldecott hopeful!

HEAVY MEDAL MOCK NEWBERY: Monday, January16, 2012

I also attended the Heavy Medal Mock Newbery at the Rockridge library on Martin Luther King Day. It is run by Nina Lindsay (Supervising Librarian of Children’s Services for the Oakland Public Library and a 3-time Newbery committee member) and Jonathan Hunt (a school librarian, a Horn Book reviewer, and 1-time Newbery committee member). You can follow their thoughts on the Newbery on their blog through School Library Journal from September to January. They always get some great debate going!

The shortlist provided some good challenges in terms of criteria: we had five books on the list that were part of a series (the criteria states that “the book must be a self-contained entity, not dependent on other media… for its enjoyment”), and all but one title had illustrations (the criteria states that “the committee must make its decision primarily on the text… illustrations, overall design of the book, etc., may be considered when they make the book less effective”).

Here is the shortlist for the Heavy Medal Mock Newbery.

THE SHORTLIST:

THE ADVENTURES OF SIR GAWAIN THE TRUE by Gerald Morris

AMELIA LOST by Candice Fleming

HEART & SOUL by Kadir Nelson

I BROKE MY TRUNK by Mo Willems

THE MONEY WE’LL SAVE by Brock Cole

A MONSTER CALLS by Patrick Ness

OKAY FOR NOW by Gary Schmidt

PENDERWICKS AT POINT MOUETTE by Jeanne Birdsall

THE TROUBLE WITH MAY AMELIA by Jennifer Holm

WONDERSTRUCK by Brian Selznick

We talked about hugely ambitious books we loved, like Heart & Soul and Okay for Now, but that also felt flawed for various reasons. We talked about the challenges of comparing shorter texts, like picture books, with longer texts like Okay for Now.

After three rounds of balloting (and really we could have gone another couple of rounds, but ran out of time), here is what we came up with:

OUR RESULTS:

Medal:

AMELIA LOST by Candice Fleming

Honors:

A MONSTER CALLS by Patrick Ness

I BROKE MY TRUNK by Mo Willems

These were two wonderful Mocks! I feel really grateful to be surrounded by such enthusiastic readers.

Any predictions for what will happen come Monday? I’ll be watching in my pajamas from home before heading in to work. Yes, it starts at 5:45 our time… Believe me, I wouldn’t get up that early for almost anything else. I can’t wait!

Ariel Richardson
Editorial Assistant, Chronicle Books

Subscribe to our monthly Chronicle Kids Newsletter.

We thought we’d take a poll to see what the kids of people who work in children’s publishing read for fun. Does it warp their reading taste? Do they read the bestsellers like other kids? What do they think of Chronicle’s children’s books? Here are the (pretty adorable) answers:

Anna, 13, is reading Kokeshi Kimonos

Kokeshi Kimonos, by Annelore Parrot

They say you should never trust the opinions of publisher’s kids about any book—their tastes are completely warped by too much inside knowledge—but I knew we were on to something when Kimonos and the other Kokeshi books started disappearing from my desk. Anna has been on frequent foraging trips to see what other Kokeshi dummies, or buttons… she might liberate. Originally wooden dolls with a hundreds-year-long tradition in Japan, the Kokeshi have transcended national boundaries and found welcoming homes everywhere in the world, including my own!

—Christopher Franceschelli, who heads Chronicle’s Handprint imprint

Quimby, 10, is reading The Templeton Twins Have an Idea (coming soon!)

That’s Quimby reading… and eating breakfast (slowly). What you can’t see is me off to the side, counting down the minutes ‘til we need to leave to go to school, reminding him to pack his backpack, put on his shoes, and grab his lunch. “Stop reading!” I, the children’s book editor, must implore every morning.

And what has he been reading lately?

Well, a few weeks ago, I let my son read the galleys of the first book in a new series we are publishing: The Templeton Twins have An Idea. He loved it. “When is it going to be a real book?” he asked. “Next fall,” I answered. (Imagine here his look of incredulity. Heck, he’ll start middle school before then.) So he asks “Can I read the manuscript of Book 2?” “It isn’t written yet,” I answer. (More incredulity.) Eyeballs rolling he exclaims, “Between this and Rick Riordan, all I am doing is waiting!”

While he waits, he’s reading:

The Orphan of Awkward Falls, by Keith Graves

“It’s about an insane cannibal,” he says. (That’s 10-year-old speak for “It’s great; stop bugging me I am trying to read.”)

The Adventures of Tintin, by Herge

We pick up Tintin Volume 2 (a big fave) after a trip to the orthodontist. That’s finished in the car by the time we reach home.

The Worst-Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure: Mars

At home, he digs into Chronicle’s The Worst-Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure: Mars, the next best thing to planetary travel. Then our pre-ordered copy of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever arrives.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 6: Cabin Fever, by Jeff Kinney

Every reader has a book that jumpstarted their independent reading. For my son, that book was Diary of A Wimpy Kid. He brought it home from the school library and for the first time ever devoured a long book. In one sitting. And then proceeded to recommend it to every kid he knew. These days, he can read a Wimpy Kid book in practically the time that it takes him to get comfortable on the sofa.

Since he’s still waiting, he turns to the “-ology” books, which are old standbys.

And his old favorites, the Calvin and Hobbes books.

Show Me How, by Derek Fagerstrom

And Show Me How. Need to know how to turn an old computer into a fish aquarium, get on a camel, toast grilled cheese on a stick, or find your perfect love match (eew)? This book will show you how. (It will also teach you to mix a cocktail and open a bottle of champagne, so if that’s a worry for you, this book is not for your child.)

Today’s breakfast book was a used copy of a Hardy Boys adventure. That’s almost done so, hey Ellis Weiner, author of The Templeton Twins, I hope you’re moving right along on that manuscript for book 2. I am going broke buying other books while we wait for it!

—Victoria Rock, Founding Children’s Publisher and Children’s Editor-at-Large

Max, 12, is reading Crispin

Crispin, by Avi

Max is reading Crispin by Avi for his 7th grade English class. He just started it, is only two chapters in, and says that it begins at the funeral of the main character’s mother. “This isn’t exactly going to be a happy book” he tells me…

When he’s not reading for school, he’s super into:

The Jedi Path

He’s a fan of all things Star Wars and this Jedi textbook/training manual really captured the imagination of my little Padawan.

—Lara Starr, Children’s Publicist

Joe, 8, Annie, 5, and Gus, 5, are reading Bone

Bone, by Jeff Smith

TV? We don’t need no stinkin’ TV!

My kids like to read—and/or pretend they know how to read—books about princesses, superheroes, baseball players… The Bone cousins. Animals. Animals that are superheroes. Princesses who are superheroes. Babies who are superheroes. The Bone cousins. Strong girls. Wimpy boys. The color pink. Pigeons. The Bone cousins. Sumo wrestling mice. Lost children. Dogs who run nightclubs. Vegetarian vampires. Best friends. And of course, wizards. Not necessarily in that order (and not necessarily according to the gender you may think).

—Lindsay Sablosky, Production Director

Henry, 5, and Auden, 4, are reading A Zeal of Zebras

A Zeal of Zebras, by Woop Studios

When my sons were smaller, all I had to do to gain an hour of quiet was to pull down Audubon’s Birds of America or Astonishing Animals: Extraordinary Creatures and the Fantastic Worlds They Inhabit and the boys would settle comfortably, mesmerized by the mysterious creatures before them. It’s no wonder then that A Zeal of Zebras with its beautiful art and facts about animals’ collective habits also captures their full attention (“No, keep reading!”). The reading experience is especially magical now that my oldest son is reading some of the words to me. And it’s nice to know that when my younger son builds a rocket ship with his preschool classmates, he convinces the others to build it next to the bookshelves in their classroom, so that when the ship launches, they’ll all be able to have books in outer space.

Also on the boys’ bookshelf:

Harry Potter, volumes 1-5

Moominpappa at Sea

Big Rabbit’s Bad Mood

Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara

Mom and Dad are Palindromes

Journey to the Ice Age: Mammoths and Other Animals of the Wild

—Jen Tolo Pierce, Design Director

Kenza, 8 months, is reading Button Nose

Button Nose, by Nina Laden

My very little one loves buttons. And so, perhaps unsurprisingly, she loves our cloth book Button Nose. It is such a lovely, durable, and giftable item complete with wonderful notions for Kenza to explore—zipper, loops, snap, button. Kenza gives the title a resounding thumbs up! And Mommy does too, as Button Nose keeps Kenza busy in her Baby Bjorn as we do errands and such.

—Amy E. Achaibou, Senior Designer, Children’s Group

Ariel Richardson
Children’s Editorial Assistant

Subscribe to our monthly Chronicle Kids Newsletter.

Each year our Editorial department sets specific goals. Usually they involve things like making deadlines and keeping promises. This year, though, one of our goals is a little more lighthearted! I will copy it word for word, in case you doubt me: “Commit to three crazy things in 2011 that will make you happy.”

How amazing is that? We have compiled a list of all of our crazy things next to the refrigerator in our kitchen, so we can inspire each other. Here are a few of my favorites from the list: start a blog, attend every First Thursday (when the galleries stay open late), have a meeting in South Park. With the end of the year approaching, I still had one crazy thing left to accomplish. So, last weekend I went on a “reading vacation.” I wanted a weekend where I could read whatever I wanted, without feeling guilty about neglected submissions and manuscripts. So, I rented a house in Sea Ranch for the weekend, complete with a porch with a view of the ocean, surprisingly comfortable wooden reading chairs, and lots of peace and quiet.

I read City of Thieves by David Benioff, a novel about the Siege of Leningrad during WWII. Intense at times, it was also crude and funny, beautifully written, with complex characters, and great elegance in its plot structure. It had been recommended by pretty much the entire staff at Copperfield’s Petaluma and Mrs. Dalloway’s, two wonderful independent bookstores, and it lived up to my expectations. I so rarely read adult literary fiction these days that reading City of Thieves was a nice vacation from my everyday reading life.

So after my weekend reading getaway, what is left on my to-read list you might ask? Plenty. Here are the top ten (okay, eleven) of the moment:

Name of the Wind: I rarely read adult fantasy these days, although it was a staple of mine as a teenager. Several friends have raved about Name of the Wind, and its sequel. One friend finished the sequel just to turn around and start reading it again from the beginning. That is the sign of a good book!

My Own Country: Abraham Verghese has become almost a household name for his bestselling novel Cutting for Stone. Here Verghese documents his time working as a doctor in Tennessee when the first case of AIDS appeared. I got to hear Verghese speak a while back, and was captivated. I’m interested in public health and hope this will be educational, inspiring, and beautifully written.

Akata Witch: A friend, who happens to be a Children’s Librarian for the Oakland Public Library, raved about this on Goodreads, I read a great interview with the author a while back, and it has been getting just a little bit of Newbery buzz. I am always interested in sci-fi and fantasy featuring protagonists of color, especially in settings other than the US and UK, as there are far too few! Here is a novel set in South Africa, with a protagonist of color, and a blurb from Ursula LeGuin on the jacket. Plus, the cover is gorgeous. I want to read it!

Okay for Now: I have been hearing so much Newbery buzz about Okay for Now. I want to see what all the fuss is about! Plus, I imagine it will be on my Mock Newbery list.

My Most Excellent Year and Dairy Queen: These are my “dirty secrets”—I know I really should have read these by now, as I’ve been hearing rave reviews for years, but I still haven’t gotten to them. It is high time I remedied the situation!

I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have to Kill You: When I was a bookseller I had a very passionate, well-read customer take me aside and shake me by the shoulders, pleading with me to read I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You. She and her husband are addicted to the series, and she couldn’t seem to stop talking about them… I don’t naturally gravitate toward fun, lighthearted, girly YA, but this premise sounds fun.

47: I am totally intrigued by the way Walter Mosley has apparently melded sci-fi and African American history in this novel. The premise: One boy and one intergalactic traveler combine forces to break the chains of slavery, with the help of a little time travel and shape shifting. It has a great cover and spine, too.

Fire: I rarely reread books, but this is one that is on my list to reread. I remember having to go in to work when I was half way done with Fire—I was totally distracted all day on the job; all I wanted was to get home so I could finish it. One of my favorite children’s literature debates over the last couple of years has been which is better, Graceling or Fire. I feel to do this debate justice I really have to reread them both (or maybe that is just a convenient excuse to reread them, since I love them both so). I’m very much looking forward to Bitterblue, coming out next May.

Flygirl: I wanted to be a Blue Angel or an astronaut for a good chunk of my childhood. But alas, I didn’t want to join the military, and my math and science skills didn’t quite cut it. Now I get to live the life of a pilot vicariously by reading about it.

Dreamhunter: Melissa Manlove, an editor here at Chronicle, raves about this series. And I trust her opinions on books!

It looks like I’ll have to schedule another reading vacation sometime soon.

Ariel Richardson
Children’s Editorial Assistant