Amelia Bloomer Project

Okay first, I'm very pleased that my book, The Runaway Dragon, made this list of recommended titles for 2011. And second, the whole list is a great resource. Best of all, it's annotated.

In case you've never heard of the project, here's how it's described on their blog:

Welcome to the Amelia Bloomer Project blog! We create an annual booklist of the best feminist books for young readers, ages birth through 18. We are part of the Feminist Task Force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association!

So take a look at the list—you know you want to!

Photo of Amelia Bloomer borrowed from the project blog. This nineteenth-century American feminist was the inspiration for the word "bloomers."

Enchanted Inkpot Giveaway, Etc.

The writers who host the Enchanted Inkpot blog are doing their second annual Giveaway Extravaganza, and all you need to do to enter is comment on what upcoming MG and/or YA fantasy books you're looking forward to reading! So head on over and see if you can be the first or second place winner of ELEVEN books in one fell swoop, including possibly (in one of the batches) mine.

On a slightly chagrined note, I will tell you that the sequel to my book, The Runaway Princess, is on sale at Amazon right now. While I'm not sure this is a good sign from my perspective as an author, I figure some of you might want to take advantage and get your hands on a copy of The Runaway Dragon for a lot less than the usual price.

And in that vein, let me just point out that this is a great time of year to buy your nieces and nephews, or sons and daughters and brothers and sisters and spouses and friends and, well, everybody, a book! Or two or three books, for that matter. I'm guessing I'm not the only one who used to love spending the afternoon of December 25th as a child reading the new books Santa brought me for Christmas...

Awwww. Also Wow!

This isn't like me, but: I'm sort of speechless! Cutest. Thing. Ever. Mostly Bit, but I'm awfully fond of those googly eyes. (If you haven't read my books, they include a magic scarf with lots of little eyes.) Clever Brandy! I would swipe the photos, but I'll let you discover them in their proper place over at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.

In case it isn't obvious, this is why we write...

And now I'm trying to think which book I fell in love with as a child and read over and over. Probably A Little Princess and Ballet Shoes. Also the Narnia books and Harriet the Spy. What about you?

Run Away with a Book - Summer Giveaway

Yes, I do write books! For this giveaway, I will send the winner copies of ALL THREE of my published books. (Next year I'll have two more out.) That would be an original folktale called The Secret-Keeper (picture book), a comic middle grade fantasy called The Runaway Princess, and a sequel called The Runaway Dragon.

To enter, leave a comment listing some of the books you've been wanting to read this summer, whether they just came out, are about to come out, or you missed them somehow and want to play catch-up. I will do a drawing from the comments after the giveaway closes at midnight on June 25th.

And by the way, it's not just the kids who get excited about the school year ending: we teachers are counting the minutes! The beach is calling... Beach pictured is in Terasawa, Japan, but I guess I can settle for Santa Monica or Leo Carillo, since I live in L.A.

(Of course, summer school is calling, too. I'm trying not to listen.)

Books I am looking forward to reading? There are sooo many, but here are just a few: Magic Below Stairs by Caroline Stevermer (out this week!), a picture book by Candace Ryan called Animal House (July), and Scumble by Ingrid Law (August).

Please remember to check back, or leave your contact info in your comment.

Update #1: Chachic wants to know if this giveaway is international. Yep! It's a global community of readers, and I can't bear to leave you out just because I might have to ship a package to Ireland or the Philippines.

Update #2: This giveaway is now over. The winner will be announced shortly.

My Books, the Return

In rambling around Kidlitosphere during the past week or so, I discovered that not one, but two bloggers have either reviewed my books or given them a shout-out. My thanks to poet Laura Salas, who enthusiastically recommends The Runaway Dragon in her "One Book I Love" feature, and to librarian Jennifer of the Jean Little Library, who nominated The Runaway Dragon for the Cybils and went on to review it, also providing a refresher on the previous book, The Runaway Princess.

Book Lists and Other Bits of Niceness

Here are a few notes from the writing side of things, which will, coincidentally enough, give you two terrific lists of books to browse.

My newest book, The Runaway Dragon, has been nominated for the Cybils (the children's book bloggers' awards) and for an American Library Association YALSA Best Books for Young Adults list. When I look at the august company I'm keeping on these lists, I get a little faint of breath and even heart, but then, how nice just to have my book nominated!

The other good news is that I now have a literary agent, Brenda Bowen of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. Hooray! Brenda's children's book blog is called Bunny Eat Bunny if you'd like to take a look.

Again, click on the lists to find all kinds of good book picks. The Cybils link above is focused on sci-fi/fantasy, but here's the link to the complete menu of nomination categories.

Note: This painting is called "Autumn," and it's by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1573).

Giveaway Winners and a List of Dragons

And the winners are... Susan and Infant Bibliophile! (I will be e-mailing you shortly about sending you each a signed copy of The Runaway Dragon.)

For the rest of you, hey--we came up with a nice little list of dragons while we were at it. Here are some favorite dragons or dragon books:

--The Reluctant Dragon, by Kenneth Grahame; illustrated by either Ernest Shephard or, more recently, Michael Hague
--Puff the Magic Dragon
--Kazul from Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles
--Kitty from Tamora Pierce's Wild Mage quartet
--the title character from Boni Ashburn and Kelly Murphy's picture book, Hush, Little Dragon
--the dragons in Harry Potter, Books 1 and 4
--The Last Dragon by Silvana de Mari
--the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey
--the dragon at the end of Hannah's Winter by Kierin Meehan
--Bruce Coville's Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher
--the dragon in Margaret Mahy's picture book, The Lion in the Meadow
--Eustace when he turns into a dragon in C.S. Lewis's Voyage of the Dawn Treader
--a British TV series, Jane and the Dragon

I'll add a few more dragons I came up with:

--the dragon depicted by Trina Schart Hyman in St. George and the Dragon
--the baby dragons in Shelley Moore Thomas and Jennifer Plecas' Good Night, Good Knight and other books in the easy reader/picture book series
--Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like, a picture book by Jay Williams and Mercer Mayer
--the dragon who gets tickled in David LaRochelle and Richard Egielski's clever backwards fairy tale, The End (picture book)
--the sexy teenage dragon/boy from Vivian Vande Velde's YA, Dragon's Bait
--the dragons in the Eragon series by Christopher Paolini
--and of course, the marvelous Smaug from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit

Please feel free to post a comment about any other terrific kids' lit dragons you might think of...

Even more dragons and dragon books from the comments:

--Jessica Day George's books, Dragon Slippers, Dragon Flight, and Dragon Spear
--the dragons in E.D. Baker's Frog Princess series
--The Tale of Custard the Dragon by Ogden Nash

P.S. In other giveaway and dragon-related news, I was just interviewed by author Linda Gerber on her website in honor of The Runaway Dragon's release. She is also giving away a copy of my book! (You have to note what your magical power of choice would be by 9/9/09 to get in on the drawing.)

New Book Giveaway

It occurs to me that I really should give away copies of my new book to a couple of deserving souls who have the immense sagacity to visit Book Aunt...

So here's the deal: leave a comment telling us about your favorite fictional dragon (other than my Laddy) and why your pick is so very cool/scary/cute/weird/other. Then you will be entered in a drawing to win one of two autographed copies of The Runaway Dragon!

If you already own the book, comment anyway--you can always give the non-autographed copy away or ask me to sign the book to a niece or nephew.

Being a great believer in randomness, I'll do this for a week or two, depending on how many people participate.

Note: It really helps for you to include your e-mail. If not, I hope your sign-in makes you easy to track down and/or that you will check back.

Update: Talking to Jennifer in the comments of my 9-27 post made me realize that if I were going to pick a dragon based on illustration, as opposed to one from fiction for middle grades, YA, or adults (which was what I had in mind when I brought this up), it would have to be the one Trina Schart Hyman created for Saint George and the Dragon. Gorgeous! Oh, but the best picture book overall about dragons is Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like, by Jay Williams and Mercer Mayer. If you haven't read it, I suggest you look for it at your library. It makes a great read-aloud for second and third graders, many of whom will get the joke about how people form their opinions. I used to read it to classes when I was subbing and then have the kids create their own dragons using torn construction paper on black backgrounds.

Happy Day!

I woke up this morning feeling like it was Christmas. Why? Because my new book comes out today! The funny thing is, it's mostly an ordinary day--no tickertape parade, no lavish party, not even a singing telegram or a bouquet of roses like after a ballerina performs.

I think I'll just stop by the bookstore and visit my baby and smile like a lunatic for a few minutes...

Then I'll come home and work on revising my next book.

Update: Author KC Dyer has her character Darby interview my character Meg here. I will be interviewed on The Enchanted Inkpot on September 9.

Dragon Pages

I'm all excited because the new pages are up on my author's website for The Runaway Dragon (coming out September 1)! Check them out. They're like DVD extras on my semi-sprawling site. Thanks to Barb Aeschliman of Jaleroro Web Designs for her wonderful work in bringing my ideas to life. The pages are "Malison's To Do List" (Malison being an evil teen sorceress), "Naming a Dragon," and "Squirrel Stuff."

Plus I added "Half the Kingdom," the short story that partly inspired The Runaway Princess, while I was at it.

(And now, back to our regular programming!)

Book Trailer for The Runaway Dragon

While the purpose of this blog is to review children’s books and riff about the world of children’s literature, I will share any key news from the writing side of things. In this case, I am very excited to have created my first book trailer! It’s for The Runaway Dragon, a funny fantasy due out on September 1, 2009, from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The book is a sequel to The Runaway Princess, an ALA Notable Book in 2007.

Here’s the YouTube link for the book trailer.